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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28238166">Sakura's Rise</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy_Sweetcheeks/pseuds/Missy_Sweetcheeks'>Missy_Sweetcheeks</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:15:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>36,576</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28238166</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy_Sweetcheeks/pseuds/Missy_Sweetcheeks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Abandoned by her team, Sakura Haruno finds comfort and support from the most unlikely source. With growing feelings, Sakura is forced into a tense situation when her team returns four years later. She must choose between being happy or tearing a family apart. Her choice leaves a sour taste in everyone's mouth but none have the chance to try and fix it. When pushed into a corner, a rat will always bite to survive.  Sakura found this out the hard way.  </p><p>When you bury something, you expect it to stay buried. This was not the case for Itachi Uchiha who had more than a few secrets buried. With the only choice he ever wanted in life taken away from him, he wanted nothing more to join his buried love. That was until the dead came back to haunt him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Itachi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>136</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Uchiha massacre never happened. Sasuke and Itachi are 3 years apart. Orochimaru attacked but did not give Sasuke the curse mark. This story will not be based on the Naruto timeline.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sakura walked through the village trying to find something to distract her. Today was another training session for team 7 but honestly, it wasn't much of a training session, more of a 'let's see how much Naruto and Sasuke can beat each other up while Sakura is left to twirl kunai knives around her thumbs.' She scoffed at the thought and kicked her heels in the dirt path in frustration. She tried to join in the training but Naruto and Sasuke would just go too easy on her and then they'd complain because they had to stay past the training schedule to "actually train." Often Sakura would just leave in the middle of a session, not that Kakashi cared, she wasn't one his precious boys with special abilities.</p><p> </p><p>Sakura sighed; she wasn't sure how long she had been walking around but she found herself standing outside the hospital entrance. Blinking a couple of times, she decided her legs had brought her for a reason and walked inside. She walked around the levels until she fell short in her steps and looked up at the room number.</p><p> </p><p><em>We gonna see how Lee's doing?! About time, slack-ass!</em> Sakura squeezed her fits until they turned white, her lips turning into a sneer. It's not like she hasn't visited Lee since the chunin exams! She had visited him about 4 times already, she had just been busy the last two weeks.</p><p> </p><p><em>Ah, busy! Busy wallowing in self-pity! Boo, Sasuke won't notice me! Naruto cares more about beating Sasuke then being my friend! Blah blah! Lee saved your butt in the chunin exams and you've just ignored him.</em> Sakura mentally growled at herself before shaking her head and taking a deep breath.</p><p> </p><p>"Lee?" Her voice was soft as she peeked her head inside the room. She smiled sweetly at the boy who was sitting in the bed staring at his hands. He looked up at her and a grin broke out on his face.</p><p> </p><p>"Youthful Sakura!" She cringed at the word 'youthful' but it's what he believed in; she couldn't fault him from having such a cheerful outlook on everything. She stepped in and walked over to him.</p><p> </p><p>"Sorry I haven't been in lately; I've just got a lot of...I've been busy" Sakura apologised to him, but he just waved her off.</p><p> </p><p>"Nonsense, Sakura! I enjoy whenever you have time to visit me" He replied still grinning from ear to ear. Sakura pulled a chair over and sat down placing her elbows on the bedside table. She rested her chin in her palms watching Lee with bright eyes listening to him talk.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Sakura couldn't believe it, if she wanted to distract herself then she should visit Lee more often. He had been chatting for three hours! It was already 5 in the afternoon. And the bonus to it was she enjoyed Lee's company and his cheerful attitude lifted her spirits up, even if it was only for the afternoon. "Thanks for the talk, Lee. I'll make sure I visit more often but I have to get home" Sakura explained standing up and grabbing the back of the chair. As she went to pick it up, Lee's hand wrapped around her wrist. Sakura looked at him with a blank face, "Lee?" She asked quietly furrowing her eyebrows.</p><p> </p><p>"Thank you, truly, for visiting me...Sakura..." He whispered looking down at the sheets. Sakura felt a stinging at her eyes as water droplets fell onto the bedsheets. Her bottom lip trembled as she realised Lee was crying.</p><p> </p><p>"Oh, Lee!" She let go of the chair and practically pounced on him, being careful enough not to hurt him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him into her.</p><p> </p><p>Unknown to the two genins, they were being watched by two separate people. One outside the window and the other in the hall near that level's reception desk. Might Gai sat outside the window to Lee's room, listening and occasionally peeking in. He had planned to surprise Lee with a visit when he heard the giggle of the young cherry blossom. He smiled softly to himself listening to Sakura comfort his favourite student. She promised, no, she vowed to Lee that she would visit more often. "I don't believe in promises, they're too easy to break. So, I, Sakura Haruno, vow to you, Rock Lee, that I will visit at minimum twice a week! Without fail!" She announced sounding way too much like her knucklehead teammate.</p><p> </p><p>The second shinobi watching them, arched an eyebrow as he watched the two embraced. After listening to all the whining and complaining, he had to see what this Sakura was like. So far, she seemed discarded by everyone in her life. Maybe that's why this boy, Rock Lee, was getting on so well with her. It seems after his injuries from the chunin exam had him bedridden, many of his friends had abandoned him. Noticing Sakura was now leaving, he turned his back to the room picking up one of the clipboards from the vacant reception desk pretending to skim over it as she passed him. He glanced up noticing her stopping at the end of the hall. She leant against the wall staring at the floor in front of her like she hadn't even noticed him standing there in the hall with her. For the first time in his life, he couldn't figure someone out. This girl was blank and void. All he could read from her posture and expression was that she was at war within herself. You don't get this girl enough credit, little brother.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>The next day, Might Gai sat in Lee's hospital room when Sakura entered. He smiled and greeted her, "Lee's still asleep" He informed Sakura walking over to her and the door. Sakura nodded and looked over at the sleeping Lee with a soft smile. Gai noticed that while she smiled, her eyes lacked the normal youthful gleam they had. He frowned as Sakura went over to place the flower she had on the bedside table. Why is Sakura here? Team 7 is meant to be at training. Gai thought as his frown deepened. He knew this because Kakashi couldn't do their daily challenge because he was late to meet up with his genin team. So why wasn't she there?</p><p> </p><p>Gai decided he'd figure out what was going on with the leaf's cherry blossom one way or another. He had heard his own team members discussing Sakura's depressing mood earlier that day and he, himself had also noticed she wasn't as chirpy. Once he decided enough time had passed, he leapt out of Lee's window and started to tail Sakura. He followed her through the village but stopped as Sakura came to a stop. His heart jumped into this throat, there's no way she could have sensed him with all the villagers around them. He calmed down as she looked up at one of the houses, her face blank but her fists curled up turning white. Maybe her family life wasn't doing the best? That would certainly explain her down mood. Sakura went to step towards the house but froze before continuing her walk.</p><p> </p><p>Gai finally stopped in a tree that surrounded the training grounds. He watched Sakura as she scanned the area before entering the small woods. She sat down on a smooth boulder going through her weapon pouches. Once she was satisfied, she stood up and picked out a kunai knife. Taking a deep breath, Sakura tripped a wire. Before Gai could understand what she was doing, several kunai and shuriken flew out towards her. His breath got caught in his throat, she was going to kill herself! But Sakura had dodged all but one which sliced the bottom of her qipao. As her right foot touched the ground, another set of weapons flew at her, she spun around on her heel using the kunai in her left hand to deflect the weapons that came from her right. She was just slow enough for Gai to see, she placed her hand on the ground and flipped her body upwards dodging a large section of the attack. The second set hadn't even finished when the next tripwire activated, this time Sakura was much slower. Her hisses could be heard throughout the woods as kunai sliced her arms and grazed her stomach. Focusing chakra into her left hand, she pushed herself up into the air once again using her kunai to deflect the weapons that showered down onto her from above.</p><p> </p><p>By the end, Sakura was standing in the middle puffing and bleeding from several wounds. She stepped towards the boulder she had sat on before but froze hearing another set of wires trigger. She spun around and saw another set of at least 150 kunai knives fly at her. As they passed through the trees into the clearing, she shut her eyes tightly waiting for the pain. But it never came. Instead, her waist was grabbed and she was pulled out of the way. Her whole body trembled as her fingers gripped onto her saviour's shirt for dear life.</p><p> </p><p>"You are safe now," His voice was soft and soothing, a voice she had only heard very few times in her life. "But you should be more careful when training around a present jonin." Sakura's eyes flew open and met concerned onyx orbs staring back at her.</p><p> </p><p>"Th...Thank... thank you" She stuttered out keeping eye contact.</p><p> </p><p>Gai watched in shock as the last wire was set off, but by what? It had been two whole minutes since the last set was fired. He went to jump down to help Sakura but froze as a black figure came out of nowhere and grabbed Sakura's waist pulling her away from the danger. Sakura held onto the male figure tightly, clearly frightened out of her mind. Gai's eyes widen as the male's long ponytail was blown side to side from the sudden gust of wind revealing his clan symbol on his shirt. <em>Itachi Uchiha.</em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Sakura's shoulder slumped as she walked onto the bridge. It was the team's normal meeting spot and of course, she was the only one there. She jumped up onto the railing and leant against the vertical pole. Closing her eyes, she thought about the other day and the person who saved her. She didn't get his name but she figured he was related to Sasuke, they had the same eyes after all. Expect... Sakura sighed deeply rubbing her forehead. Sasuke's eyes were much more frightening, he was a cocky arrogant ass and his eyes showed that but her saviour? Soft, caring and almost curious.</p>
<p>"What's got you so happy?" And there goes her peaceful time. Sakura opened one eye and saw Sasuke leaning against the railing next to her. His head was tilted to the left to look at her.</p>
<p>"Ain't any of your business" Sakura snapped crossing her arms. Sasuke's eyes widen for a second before he crossed his own arms looking away with a huff.</p>
<p>"Where's the dope? He's normally here by now" Sasuke enquired still not looking at Sakura.</p>
<p>"How should I know? I'm not his mother" Sakura replied standing up and jumping off the railing. She walked over to the other side muttering about how he was too close to her. Sasuke's eye twitched, since when did Sakura care about how close he stood to her? He looked back at her and noticed her arms were bandaged up and her qipao had cuts and slashes in it. What had she been doing?</p>
<p>Sasuke didn't get the chance to ask because Kakashi appeared on the bridge. "Ah good, you're both here" He commented smiling at them. Sakura raised an eyebrow.</p>
<p>"And Naruto is where?" She asked. Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck sighing.</p>
<p>"He's gone off on a missi-"</p>
<p>"A MISSION!? WITHOUT US!?" Sasuke screeched. Sakura clapped her hands over her ears as the boy nearly had a mental break down. Sometimes he could worse than Naruto.</p>
<p>"Yes, it's a solo mission. So instead we'll be off missions until he returns, understand?" Kakashi informed them.</p>
<p>"So are we going to be training while he's gone?" Sakura enquired stepping forward. Kakashi looked at her and his eyes flew to her bandaged arms.</p>
<p>"Uh well..."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Why did she expect anything different? Of course Kakashi didn't plan to train with her, it was always Sasuke this or Naruto that. Kami, she wished she had pockets so she could shove her hands in them and sulk around like Sasuke often did. The thought made her come to a standstill. She didn't want to be like Sasuke, she wanted to the cheery Sakura she had always been. What would her parents say if they could see her like this? "Hey, forehead!" Ino's voice called out cutting off Sakura's thoughts. Sakura looked up and saw her friend standing at the entrance of her flower shop. Sakura smiled and walked over to her.</p>
<p>"Hey, Ino. What's up?" She asked as Ino pulled her into the shop.</p>
<p>"I was about to ask you that, I thought you said you had a meeting today. With team 7" Ino recalled. A frown made its way onto her face as Sakura looked down sighing.</p>
<p>"Yeah, I did. Naruto's on a solo mission and Kakashi-sensei is training Sasuke" She murmured playing with some of the flowers.</p>
<p>"And what about you? He isn't training you as well?" Ino asked glancing out of the shop. She grinned seeing Neji and Tenten outside. Noticing Sakura wasn't watching, Ino waved the two in.</p>
<p>"He just wants to focus on Sasuke's Sharingan or whatever... it's none of my business what they do when they train" Sakura replied with a shrug. Hearing two people enter, Sakura looked up at Ino and went to bid her goodbye but stopped seeing Neji and Tenten there. "Oh hi guys" Sakura forced a smile onto her face.</p>
<p>"Sakura! Long-time no see" Tenten grinned at her while Neji nodded a hello to her. Sakura bowed slightly nodding back at Neji as he studied her.</p>
<p>"Ah yeah, sorry I was just going. Got a lot of...chores and studying to do!" Sakura cringed at how bad her lies were.</p>
<p>
  <em> Mental note there, Sakura. Learn how to lie before you get your ass kicked. </em>
</p>
<p>"We overheard you say Kakashi wasn't training you, would you care to join us with Gai-sensei? Since Lee is in the hospital, we need a third person to train with" Neji asked speaking up for the first time. Sakura's ears turned pink.</p>
<p>"Oh, I wouldn't want to intrude! Plus...I don't have any skills to aid your training session" Sakura rubbed her arm awkwardly. She didn't want anyone else hating on her for her lack of abilities.</p>
<p>"Nonsense! Come on!" Tenten squealed grabbing Sakura's arm and dragging her out of Ino's shop.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Itachi on the building roof watching the villagers go about their day. He was thinking about the other day, that girl was too reckless.</p>
<p>
  <em>"Come, I'll take you to the hospital" Itachi ordered as she was finally able to stand up without his help, even though he still held her arm in case she did fall. Sakura shook her head walking over to the boulder near the edge of the clearing. "You're injured and bleeding" Itachi stated the obvious. Sakura just waved her hand around the air at him. She went to go around the boulder but grabbed her stomach hissing in pain. Itachi rushed over grabbing her as she fell onto the boulder. He grabbed her sides gently and helped her sit up before placing her down on the boulder.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"How much does it hurt?" He asked inspecting the wounds through the cut open fabric. Sakura stared at him with pink cheeks, Itachi noticed she had gone silent and looked up at her raising an eyebrow.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"It's not that painful, really" Sakura finally replied wiggling to get out of his grip. Itachi sighed but didn't let her go.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"You could have killed yourself doing that," He watched as her jaw tightened and her eyes harden. "So what were you doing? I'll help then I'm going to take you to the hospital" He ordered, his tone informing her that he was in fact not giving her choice on this. Sakura huffed quietly before pointing behind her.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"There's a bag there, I need to collect all my weapons. They're expensive" She muttered. Itachi's eye twitched slightly, she was refusing treatment for her weapons? They'd still be here when she got back! Itachi sighed but let of her and picked up her bag.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"I'll collect your weapons, if they bother you that much" Itachi told her but she just shook her head. <strong>What now?</strong> Itachi thought with narrowed eyes.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Just open the bag, please" She was using her manners now. Itachi nodded and did as she said. He went to protest as she stood up but before he could speak, he noticed her pick up a small bundle of nearly invisible threads. She closed her eyes focusing her chakra into the threads. Itachi noticed as nearly the whole floor of the clearing lit up with a light blue shine. That's why she wasn't bothered about wasting time picking the weapons up, she had charka strings attached to them all.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Itachi was pulled out of his daydream when he noticed a blur of pink being pulled through the crowds. His eyes focused on Sakura's bright hair, a brunette girl was pulling her along by her left wrist while Sakura held the hand of another brunette. Itachi sat up watching the trio carefully.</p>
<p>Neji's left eye twitched, someone was watching them. He fell to a stop as his head snapped to his right. As he stopped, his entangled hand yanked Sakura to a stop then Sakura pulled Tenten to a stop. "Neji? Are you alright?" Sakura asked stepping closer to him with a concerned expression. Neji's pupilless eyes landed on the striking red ones from atop of the building. Neji narrowed his eyes, why was an Uchiha watching them? He was snapped out of his thought by Sakura clicking her fingers in front of his face. He shook his head and looked back at her.</p>
<p>"Are you alright, Neji?" She asked again with a frown. Neji nodded and smiled at her.</p>
<p>"Perfectly fine, Sakura. Sorry I just got distracted by a thought... Let us continue" He replied making her sigh quietly but nod. As Neji followed the girls, his hand still entangled with Sakura's, he thought about the Uchiha on the roof. It couldn't be Sasuke, the chakra was too strong for Sasuke. So who was it? And who was he watching? Neji narrowed his eyes slightly at Sakura's bouncing hair. It had to be her; she was on a team with one after all... so which Uchiha would be so interested in Sakura Haruno?</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sakura rubbed her arm like a little child as she looked at the ground, Tenten had just asked Gai-sensei about her joining their training session. After a few seconds of a hard look, Gai's face broke out into a grin. "Well of course!! The more people we can help and spread the youthful word to the better!" He yelled. Sakura's head flew up as she stared at him in shock. He actually wants her to train with them? She didn't have any particular good weapon skills like Tenten nor did she have any abilities like Neji and yet he still was open for her to train with them.</p><p>"How do you normally train with Naruto and Sasuke?" Tenten asked looking at Sakura with a grin. Sakura's eyes cast to the ground, the last time she "trained" with her team members was back in the land of waves when Kakashi taught them how to climb trees. Gai narrowed his eyes at the young girl in front of him, he could tell Neji was assessing each word and action Sakura did and he himself was guilty of doing the same thing. Something was wrong.</p><p>Two simple words made the three teammates feel the world crash around them. "I don't." She doesn't train with them? The thought bombarded their minds. How can you be on a long-term team with someone and not train with them?</p><p>"And your private training sessions with Kakashi?" Gai enquired. Neji's stomach sunk, even he got training with his uncle and Gai would make sure all of the genins on the team had at least three private sessions every two months, but he had a feeling Sakura's response wouldn't be the same. Sakura finally looked back up thinking of how she should answer. Her eyes landed on Neji's and her stomach turned into knots, she always thought it was strange how team 7 "trained" but she never questioned it. Kakashi was a jonin, he was the copycat ninja, he knew what he was doing. He had to, Sakura put her trust into him but Neji's face... told her that wasn't true.</p><p>"What private sessions?" Sakura finally spoke. Neji shut his eyes tightly as Gai nearly collapsed. Tenten's mouth smashed into the ground, this girl didn't get to train with her teammates and she didn't get private sessions?!</p><p>"Wait a minute! How do you train? Has Kakashi got you a private mentor?" Tenten asked. Neji forced himself to open his eyes, he was afraid of the answer Sakura would give them. Sakura didn't know how to put it into words, so she picked at the wrapped tucked away piece of her bandage. She unwrapped her arms and let the bandages fall to the ground. "I train myself." Neji's eyes went wide, her arm was covered in cuts and scars, some more faded than others. Some clearly as recent as last week. Gai watched her facial expression, she ground her teeth together giving the ground a cold hard stare. So this is why she was at the training grounds, she must have had those weapons set up for weeks before she returned so she wouldn't remember how she set them up.</p><p>"So...wh...what have you been focusing on in your training?" Neji asked still staring at her scars.</p><p>"Well... I'm annoying, I can't exactly change that. I'm not fast enough to keep up with the team or dodge anything. As you can see," She waved her arms slightly. "And I'm too weak to contribute to my team..." Sakura trailed off seeing the depressing looks on their faces. "So I have a lot to work on..." Sakura started chewing the inside of her cheek.</p><p><em>Jeez, tough crowd. Eh? You'd think this isn't how they talk about themselves or their team members</em>. Sakura mentally sighed.</p><p>"Is this how Naruto and Sasuke talk to you?" Tenten asked with a deep frown. Sakura shrugged.</p><p>"Sometimes, Sasuke likes to remind I'm annoying often but no... it's when they think I'm not listening or not there when they say it... but they just want me to be better! For the sake of the team!" Neji almost cringed at the excuses Sakura was making. He couldn't imagine Naruto being like this, it was Naruto who made Neji figure out that there is more than what abilities you possess. It's how hard you work, how much of yourself you put into your work and being the best ninja you can possibly be.</p><p>"Anyway, I'm focusing on my speed first... I can only work on becoming stronger if I don't die on a mission for being slow" Sakura had created a habit of discrediting herself and focusing on the negative. She somehow always managed to insult herself.</p><p>"Speed is something we can work on! Neji is the master at speed and you saw Lee at the chunin exams, I have no doubt that Gai-sensei can help you be as fast as him!" Tenten announced with a grin. She had decided to ignore the self insults<em>, I'll have to fix that later though. It'll only hurt her in the long run.</em></p><p>Sakura looked up at Gai with hopeful eyes, Gai grinned and extended his hand putting his thumb up at her.</p><p>"Of course! We'll do the same way we did it with, Lee!" He screamed. Neji rubbed his head.</p><p>"Maybe we should start off with a little easier, just so we don't break her" Neji muttered remembering how much weight his sensei put on Lee's ankles when they first became a team. Sakura giggled at Neji's comment, from him it didn't seem like an insult. Instead, it felt like it came from a caring side. Tenten beamed watching Sakura interact with the three of them, after the last month or two of her being so down, it was nice to see her happy.</p><p>"Uh, just one thing... I would like to keep this training a secret. I want to surprise team 7 on how much I've improved when we do our next big survival exam."</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Sakura was sprawled out on the ground breathing her lungs out. Neji wasn't joking when he said he didn't want to break her, they were insane when training! Is this how Sasuke and Naruto trained together? Or was Gai just crazy?</p><p><em>Who cares! It's working, isn't it?! </em>Sakura mentally nodded, yes it was in fact working. They had only been training for a week and Sakura could already feel herself improving. Tenten's evil grin took over Sakura's field of view, the sadistic bitch was enjoying Sakura's suffering. Not that Sakura liked to complain, she knew Tenten wanted to see her improve. That's why when the words left Tenten's mouth, Sakura only groaned before sitting up.</p><p>"Time to put on the weights!" Tenten was dangling them over Sakura. Sakura took them and started to attach them to her ankles without a word.</p><p>"You're already improving, Sakura. In another week or two I bet you'll be able to put more weights on" Neji said walking over with a small smile. Sakura chuckled quietly.</p><p>"Thank you, Neji. It's only thanks to you guys that I'm able to improve" She muttered, a sad smile echoing on her face. "Soon I'll be going back on missions too. I expect Naruto to return from his solo mission in the next three weeks" Sakura informed them with a half shrug.</p><p>"Well, we'll always be here for you train with" Tenten reassured her. Sakura's eyes went wide and she flung herself up off the ground.</p><p>"I gotta go visit Lee!" She squealed racing around to pick all her stuff up. Neji chuckled, she moved as if she had completely forgotten the weights around her ankle.</p><p>"We'll come with then. Won't we, Neji?" Tenten grinned at her teammate informing him that he didn't have a choice. Neji sighed quietly but nodded.</p><p>"I suppose we should" Neji replied once Sakura finished running around like a headless chicken.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Hour Zero (6 am)</b>
</p><p>Sakura walked to the training grounds, smiling to herself. It felt like it was just yesterday that she was standing here with Naruto and Sasuke grumbling about their sensei being late. Then grumbling about their empty stomachs with the possibility of being sent back to the academy hanging over their head. She jumped up onto the top of the middle punching log, the one that Naruto was tied to when Kakashi caught him trying to steal one of the lunches. Sakura closed her eyes with a smile feeling at ease with the chilly freeze that washed through her body. Today was the day, she was going to show team 7 what she was made of. She may have not gotten to the strength level of Sasuke and Naruto but she was close, she had improved and that's what mattered to her.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Hour Two (8 am)</b>
</p><p>Sakura frowned scanning the area, she had fallen asleep for an hour since it was so early in the morning. She had expected Naruto's loud voice to wake her up but... the training grounds were empty beside her. She expected Kakashi-sensei to be late but both Naruto and Sasuke?</p><p><em>Just give it some time, Sakura. Naruto's probably forgot by now and Sasuke could be at a meeting with his parents. Who knows and it's only been two hours. </em>Sakura nodded, that was right. There could be several things that are keeping them late.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Hour Four (10 am)</b>
</p><p>Four hours? Sakura was now lying on her back with her legs lying up the log. She was playing with a kunai in the dirt to her left. Sasuke would have at least been here by now, did she get the day wrong? No, no that's not possible. It was always the same day, every year. She groaned getting a sick feeling in her stomach.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Hour Seven (1 pm)</b>
</p><p>Sakura was fed up; it was now an hour past noon! They were to meet up at 6am! Sakura growled shoving her stuff back into their correct spots. How could they forget this!? They did it every year! To see how much they had improved. She was so excited to show them what she's been doing. Sakura pulled her bag over her shoulder starting to stalk back into the village. She'd go to Naruto's apartment and have a talk to him. Only because she didn't know where Kakashi lived and she'd be too embarrassed to go anywhere near the Uchiha compound without an invitation. </p><p>Sakura knocked on Naruto's door but got no answer, maybe he wasn't home? Sakura felt her anger boil again. If he wasn't home, where the hell was he!? She decided she'd see if he was ignoring her or not. She went to the outside of the apartment building and focused chakra into her feet and started scaling the side. She ignored the whispers and points of villagers from down below as she finally made it to Naruto's window. She squatted looking through but couldn't see Naruto. In fact, she couldn't even see a single mess. Everything, including his bed, was spotless. "Naruto!!" She screamed in frustration.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Hour 10 (4 pm)</b>
</p><p>Sakura slammed her fist into the ground with an ear-piercing scream. The ground under her disappeared, her normal non-chakra infused punch could create a small crater in the ground. It was enough to satisfy her, for now. She had just searched the whole damned village for three hours looking for those idiots she called teammates.</p><p><em>Some teammates, huh? Ditching me like that! Can you believe that, Sakura? Can you believe that they'd just abandon-</em><em>No! They didn't abandon me! </em>Sakura growled before slamming her fist once again into the ground creating a larger crater.</p><p>"They wouldn't!" Sakura screamed out to nobody special, her legs wobbled underneath her. Tears threatened to spill out of her eyes. There was no reason for them to have not come today! They couldn't have all forgotten, that's just not possible. And the team never missed out of the exam unless... Sakura's legs finally collapsed; she felt the weights double as her body became numb. Her knees pressed together as she dug her hands into the dirt. They couldn't have gone out on a mission without her, could they? If they did, they didn't even notify her... there's no way they would do that, Sasuke maybe but Naruto? No, Naruto would have gone to her... right?</p><p>
  <b>Hour 14 (8 pm)</b>
</p><p>Sakura had wandered around the village for the last three hours after breaking the training grounds some more. She felt drained more than normal. She didn't want to visit Lee today, not even his chirpiness could bring her spirits up. She wasn't in the mood for training and Ino was with team 10 celebrating another year together, it was their annual thing just as team 7's was to have their survival exam. She wasn't close enough to anyone team 8 and even if she was, she'd just be a bother in this mood.</p><p>Sakura pushed the front door open and locked it behind her before placing her key on the cupboard there. She walked over to the two steps that lead to the rest of the house and sighed deeply.</p><p><em>Sakura! Don't forget to put your shoes away, sweetie! </em>Sakura smiled as her mother's voice echoed throughout her mind. She used to think it was a hassle, listening to the stupid things she droned on about. But now, in hindsight, she could see her what her mother was doing and saying. She took her shoes off and dropped them onto the practically empty shoe rack next to her. Almost hesitantly, Sakura made her way into the kitchen planning on grabbing out one of her pre-made salads but her eyes landed one of the treats she kept in the fridge. This one was her father's favourite and whenever she had it, her world was flooded with memories of her parents. It wasn't often Sakura allowed herself to a treat but after today, she needed those memories. Someone to comfort her, even if they were just in her mind. So she took her father's favourite treat and plopped down at the kitchen table allowing herself to be sucked into her past.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Sakura surveyed the surrounding area; she had concluded that they weren't in the village. She had visited Naruto's house again at 7 am, he surely would have been asleep but it looked the same as yesterday.</p><p><em>It's not like the little knucklehead isn't back from his solo, it's been too long for that crap to still be going on. </em><em>And I saw him, remember? </em>Sakura sighed rubbing her forehead. She was right, Naruto wasn't on his solo anymore. It was time to see Lady Tsunade.</p><p>That's how Sakura ended up in the Hokage's office. Sitting in the chair in front of her desk completely frozen. Drained of all colour and feeling the nausea start. Shizune watched with her hands clutched together, she could just feel Sakura's life drain from her. "I'm...sorry, my lady but..." Sakura stood up mid-sentence. Tsunade watched the poor girl in pity. "That's just not possible. It c..." Sakura looked up at Tsunade before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed.</p><p>"Sakura!" Shizune ran over and kneeled next to Sakura checking for any injury. Tsunade sighed, she feared this would be her reaction. Even though two days had passed, Tsunade's blood still boiled when she thought about it.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>There was a quick knock at her door, Tsunade glanced up from her paper. "Enter" She called before seeing Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Jiraiya enter. She put her pen down arching an eyebrow at them. "What can I do for you four?" She asked.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Lady Hokage, I would like to ask for permission for team 7 to go out training with Master Jiraiya. I believe it would benefit Naruto by also training with Master Jiraiya and Sasuke could improve drastically if the distractions of the village were removed" Kakashi stated. Tsunade's first thought was that it would be fantastic to send them out. Her second thought was to throw Kakashi out of the window and bury him under the Hokage building.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Team 7?" She asked raising her eyebrow even further up her face.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Yes, my lady" Kakashi responded. Tsunade looked to her right at Shizune who was as pale as a ghost. She could feel her mistress' anger expanding from her body.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Shizune, surely you can tell me what's wrong with this situation" She commented making Shizune shrink further into the corner.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Pink" She squeaked out with a small tremble.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Ah yes. That's it. I assume Sakura is getting prepared to leave with you" Tsunade said more than asked Kakashi turning back to him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Uh...no?" Kakashi responded confused on what the Hokage was talking about.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE THEN!?" Tsunade screeched slamming her hands on the desk. Being buried under the Hokage building is too much of a privilege for him. She'll feed him to Tonton, alive.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Look, granny, Sakura is cool and all, but she won't be able to cope being away from the village for too long" Naruto interjected. "And this way, she isn't left out with no sensei out there."</em>
</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>Neji ran into the hospital room with Tenten and all of team 8 and 10 on his tail. "What level is Sakura Haruno on?" Neji asked as the others looked around panicked.</p>
<p>"Oh, Sakura is on the third level with Lady Hoka-oh, uh bye?" The receptionist watched as the group sprinted off to the stairs. Within minutes they were rushing over to the door where the 5th Hokage stood.</p>
<p>"Lady Tsunade!" Ino called out. Tsunade turned to face the group with a sad expression.</p>
<p>"Ah hello, I assume you all heard about Sakura?" She asked with a frown. Ino nodded.</p>
<p>"We came as soon as we heard, what happened?" Neji asked, their Hokage sighed and stepped aside gesturing for them to step into the room. Ino and Tenten stepped in first, followed by Neji and Shikamaru, then Hinata and Kiba and lastly Shino and Choji. Tsunade stood in the doorway watching them all surround the bed.</p>
<p>Neji stepped over first touching Sakura's pale arm. "When did she get all these scars?" Shikamaru asked scanning Sakura. Tenten and Neji glanced at each other, they promised to stay quiet.</p>
<p>"The question should be how did this happen? Why is she in here?" Neji asked turning to face Tsunade, still touching Sakura's arm. The group glanced at each other when she stayed silent.</p>
<p>"Has this got anything to do with Naruto and Sasuke not being around?" Shino asked. Everyone snapped their heads towards him. "My insects keep track of everyone of meaning to me, including everyone in the rookie 9 and team Gai. My insects stopped reporting the locations of Kakashi-sensei, Naruto and Sasuke two days ago" Shino explained answering the unasked question.</p>
<p>"Yes. Sakura's team members left with Jiraiya two days ago to train outside the village... I just informed Sakura."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sakura rubbed her eyes gently before noticing the white ceiling. <em>Wait a minute, are we in the hospital!?</em> Sakura pushed herself up scanning around the room. Her cheeks heated up noticing the large group camping out in the room. Tenten and Neji were curled up together in one corner, Choji and Shikamaru rested shoulder to shoulder with Ino lying across their laps in another corner while Kiba and Shino took the two chairs in the room allowing Hinata to curl up with Akamaru in her arms. Sakura rubbed the back of her neck, why were they all here? As her eyes landed on the sheet covering her legs the memories came flooding back. Suddenly her cheeks were wet and she could taste salt. They had done it... her worse nightmare had finally come true. As Sakura wallowed in her heartbreak, she heard the creak of floorboards. Her head snapped up and met with glowing red eyes. Before she could focus on them, they had vanished along with any sign of anyone being there.</p>
<p>Sakura pulled the cardigan closer to her shivering body. She had managed to get out of the hospital room without tripping over the bodies that were now spread out over the floor and made her way to the roof. Resting her side against the hospital roof, she looked out over the village admiring it quietly. She wondered; it had been the village that made them leave? Did they feel as if that was the problem that was holding them back? Or was it her? She was so excited to show them how she was improving, and they didn't give her a chance. They had left the day before their annual test and not a single word had been muttered to her... who else knew?</p>
<p>Sakura felt her breath deepen as Tsunade's chakra invaded her thoughts. She turned around and saw the 5th Hokage leaning against the roof entrance watching her with a sad smile. "It's quite peaceful up here, isn't it?" Sakura only nodded in response. Tsunade pushed herself off the wall and walked over to Sakura. "How are you feeling?" She asked placing a hand on Sakura's shoulder. Sakura looked down at the Hokage's hand before shaking it off her shoulder and turning back to the village. Tsunade frowned but didn't push as the tears started to flow down Sakura's face.</p>
<p>"I've been training...focusing on getting faster, stronger...they never even gave me a chance" Sakura whispered her hands trembling as they clutched each other. "What kind of team just deserts their comrade?" She added still refusing eye contact.</p>
<p>"What did I do wrong?" Sakura asked turning to look at the Hokage with puffy eyes.</p>
<p>"I don't know Sakura but..." Tsunade once again placed a hand on her shoulder. When Sakura didn't shake it off, Tsunade put her other one on Sakura's left shoulder and gripped her tightly. "I understand your pain... the best thing you can do for yourself is to train your ass off. Don't care what they think of you, prove to yourself that you're above them. Become the best kunoichi you can possibly be."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sakura watched as the sun rose to the middle of the sky sighing to herself. After her talk with Tsunade, she returned to her hospital room to sleep for the rest of the night. She didn't want everyone to sleep there just to wake up to her being gone, she didn't want to be any more annoying then she had to be. But now she was lying on the roof of the academy, they were out for the next couple of months, so she didn't have to bother with anyone seeing her. She remembered the first day team 7 got together. She was so happy, she was on a team with him... <em>Sasuke Uchiha...</em></p>
<p><em>Ha! What a laugh, Sasuke never cared about you nor will he ever. </em>Sakura sighed but nodded to herself.</p>
<p>Hearing footsteps, Sakura flung herself up off the ground and turned around. Nobody should have been here. Her eyes landed on Iruka who was grinning at her, "Sakura? What are you doing here?" He asked with a chuckle walking over to her. <em>There goes my peace</em>. Sakura shrugged looking back up at the sky. Iruka frowned slightly but shook her manner off. "I heard Naruto and Sasuke left to train. Man, Naruto has gotten so grown up... I can't wait to see how much stronger he'll be when they return" Iruka's words became silent to Sakura's ears. What was people's problem? Can't they see she's in <em><strong>pain</strong>? </em>The people she thought would be there for her... had discarded her like she was nothing to them. After everything she gave them.</p>
<p>"Sorry, Iruka-sensei... I have to go train" Sakura muttered before standing up and walking over to the ledge of the roof. Iruka frowned but nodded.</p>
<p>"Of course... I bet you'll become just as strong as them, Sakura. Maybe even stronger with that fiery will of yours" Iruka replied. Sakura's jaw tightened before she leapt to the ground heading towards the training grounds.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Month One</b>
</p>
<p>Sakura ticked another three lines into her notebook, it had only been a month since team 7 had left and she was already halfway through this book. Ino arched an eyebrow at Sakura before glancing at Shikamaru. "How troublesome, Sakura. Still focusing on beating Naruto and Sasuke?" Shikamaru muttered. Sakura's eye twitched in response as she flipped her book back open putting another tick on the page; Shikamaru smirked at her. Shikamaru had been playing with Sakura ever since he found out that she was marking down every time someone mentioned someone from Team 7 in the 2nd week of their leave. "Do we count Kakashi-sensei or?" Shikamaru had never mentioned the pinkette's sensei before (to tease her) and never would after this. Sakura growled placing another tick in her book before slamming it shut and balling her right hand up into a fist.</p>
<p>"That's enough outta you, pineapple!" Sakura slammed her fist into Shikamaru's face sending him flying down the street. Ino squealed in surprise jumping backwards.</p>
<p>"Billboard Brow!!" She screamed making Sakura roll her eyes.</p>
<p>"I have to go train. I'll never get this done today. THANKS, SHIKAMARU!" Sakura screeched down the street with a twitch of her fist. <em>He’s lucky I only hit him once. </em>Sakura huffed quietly and walked off leaving Ino to deal with the groaning mess that was Shikamaru.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <b>Month 3</b>
</p>
<p>Sakura focused on restarting the fish's heart, pumping chakra through it so it would start beating. She had been already organised on how her training schedule would be. She was working on a schedule of four weeks. The first week would be delegated to studying medical ninjutsu, only reading through the many books the Hokage had. Then the second week she would put the previous week's study into practice, if she had successfully done it multiple times before the week's end then she would continue to read. The third week was dedicated to studying jutsu and helping the 5th Hokage. The last week, Sakura would work on her physical training, this week was when most of her lessons with Tsunade happened. Today was the second last day of the 2nd week for month 3 of Sakura's schedule. This was her first week studying to restart a heart, normally Tsunade would wait until Sakura was more advanced at medical ninjutsu but the first two months Sakura had flown through healing simple wounds and repairing minor muscle tears. She wanted to see how she would fare with a failed heart.</p>
<p><em>Guess the boys were right to leave you behind, imagine if they got hurt while training and you couldn't even heal them. You can barely heal a torn muscle, how do you expect to resta- </em>The thoughts were cut short as the fish started to wiggle under Sakura's green chakra. Sakura gasped and quickly threw the fish back into the pond. Tsunade grinned before racing over to catch Sakura who collapsed into the table where the fish had been lying seconds before. The Hokage chuckled quietly before picking her up and resting her on the lounge towards the back of the room. "Well done Sakura" She whispered brushing Sakura's hair out of her face as she slept.</p>
<p>
  <b>Month 6</b>
</p>
<p>Itachi leant against a tree watching with a careful eye. Her hand movements were fast but sloppy, predictable and her feet barely moved. He could only imagine how long she'd been out here training as she flipped over landing on her left hand. A small gasp could be heard before she collapsed to the ground. Itachi went to run over to her but stopped as Sakura sat up pressing her right hand against the wounded area. "Good thing we did torn muscles first, eh?" She giggled to herself with a shake of her head. When did she learn to heal? <em>What is she doing here anyway? I thought Sasuke's team left for training.</em></p>
<p>"I thought I told you that you shouldn't train so recklessly without a jonin around" Itachi spoke stepping over towards her. Her head shot up looking at him with wide eyes.</p>
<p>"You scared the crap out of me!" She squealed placing a hand over her heart. A smile crept onto Itachi's face as he watched her dramatic antics.</p>
<p>"My apologies, I thought you'd have noticed my chakra by now" He replied. Sakura's left eye twitched in annoyance as her cheeks flushed red. Clearly, she isn't that advanced yet.</p>
<p>"Chakra sensing isn't in my schedule until next month....so...shut it, Mister" She replied looking away with a grumpy pout. Itachi shook his head slightly at her, her childish behaviour reminded him of Sasuke.</p>
<p>"It's been six months..." Sakura's throat became dry and her heart raced, was he also going to mention her being ditched by her team? "How often do you still train this recklessly?" Itachi asked sensing her distress. Sakura felt herself relax and shrugged looking back at her arm to finish healing it.</p>
<p>"Now I can heal minor wounds, I'm not that worried about dangerous training" Sakura responded. Itachi raised an eyebrow watching her body language, she really was hard to read.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <b>1 Year and 6 months</b>
</p>
<p>"Who is she? This girl you've been spending all your time with," Fugaku's question caught Itachi off guard. He stumbled to a stop and spun around to look his father in the eye. Fugaku raised an eyebrow at his eldest son, "What? Did you really expect me not to notice?" he asked as Itachi's jaw tightened. <em>Lie.</em> The thought crossed Itachi's mind. <em>Say she's nobody and it just happens your paths cross.</em> The thought of lying disappeared just as quickly as it came and was replaced with another. Why did he feel the need to lie about her? Why was the lie that she was nobody? She really was. Or at least she should have been.</p>
<p>"Her name is Sakura Haruno" Itachi replied not breaking eye contact and trying to ignore the disapproval in his father's eyes.</p>
<p>"Haruno? Is she not your little brother's teammate?" Fugaku inquired. Itachi gave a quick nod in response. Itachi could see his father had the same question as everyone else, why was she still in the village while team 7 wasn't? "Why are you spending time with her then?" Itachi's heart froze as his stomach crunched to find an answer. <em>I don't know, why am I spending time with her?</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Soooo, who is the lucky guy?" Ino asked with a grin watching her best friend scan through the flowers in the shop. Sakura froze at the question as her ears turned pink.</p>
<p>"Er, what guy?" Sakura asked leaning over to look at the flowers closest to the floor. Ino scoffed quietly with a shake of her head.</p>
<p>"That guy you're always with, ya know! Long black hair, tall and always hangs around the training grounds" Ino described the man Sakura was seeming to spend so much time with. Sakura smiled to herself picking three carnations out of the patch. As she stood back up, the thought flashed through her mind.</p>
<p>
  <em>Lie, he's nobody. You two just happen to cross paths a lot.</em>
</p>
<p>Sakura mentally sighed, is that lying? He should be nobody to her. Ino could tell the question made Sakura start a war within herself, she frowned watching Sakura stare down at the three flowers in her hand with a blank face. After a few seconds, Sakura shook her head and walked over to Ino handing her the flowers.</p>
<p>"Man, the last time I saw you this hung up on a dude, we became enemies" Ino muttered taking them from her and wrapping them up. Sakura looked up at her with wide eyes and an open mouth.</p>
<p><em>She's talking about Sasuke, now there's no way in hell I can't tell her anything about Itachi! </em>Sakura's shoulders slumped down waiting for her friend to return with the flowers. She was right, how could she bring up the fact Itachi was Sasuke's brother? Ino would just think she's trying to replace Sasuke. Sakura rubbed her forehead with a quiet groan.</p>
<p>"Sakura, I think it's great that you've got someone to help you with this training and maybe even more," Ino looked over her shoulder with a wink. "But I hope you know, as your best friend, I am always here" Ino added walking back over. She walked around the counter and stood in front of Sakura. Sakura's face softened, she hadn't forgotten her best friend but she also knew Ino didn't understand. Ino's teammates respected her, Sakura's didn't.</p>
<p>"I know that, Ino..." Sakura muttered reaching into her back pouch to grab the money for the flowers. She grabbed the correct change out and handed it to Ino before taking the flowers from her.</p>
<p>Ino grabbed Sakura's free hand as she went to leave, Sakura stopped looking back at her with furrowed eyebrows. Ino opened Sakura's palm and placed the money in her hand, her other hand rose and curled Sakura's hand up. Ino gripped her friend's hand tightly. Sakura went to protest but stopped, there was no point if Ino wasn't taking the payment. "Your parents.... were the kindest people I ever met, Sakura... They deserved better and if you feel like you can't talk to me then...then this is the least I can do as your friend" Ino's voice was quiet as tears appeared on the edge of her eyes. "I remember how happy they were when I first met them. A friend for their precious baby..." Ino chuckled at the memory still holding Sakura's hand tightly.</p>
<p>"Than-" Sakura cut herself off in surprise as Ino let go and pulled her into a bear hug. Sakura smiled to herself wrapping her arms around her best friend.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sakura froze in the doorway of the flower shop as Ino spoke once again, "I want you to know this, Sakura. So many of us are proud of you," Sakura felt her heart beat faster. Us? Who is us? "We all meet up every month or so and just hang out... and you know, we all talk about you" Ino added with a small smile. <br/>"Us? W...who?" Sakura asked not turning to face her.</p>
<p>"Shikamaru, Choji, Hinata, Kiba and Shino of course! I've heard word that even Gaara, Temari and Kankuro have heard about what happened and are rooting for you! O, and of course Kurenai-sensei, Gai-sensei and Asuma-sensei!" Ino giggled with a grin forming. Sakura felt tears start to drip down her cheeks, all these people cared? They were proud? Proud of her? "Even Iruka-sensei has been talking about you to the academy kids!" Ino added, a small frown appearing as she noticed Sakura's hand trembling and tears hit the floor.</p>
<p>Sakura's mind went back to the day after she found out about team 7 leaving, <em><b>'I bet you'll become just as strong as them, Sakura. Maybe even stronger.</b></em><em><b>'</b></em></p>
<p>"Thank you, Ino" Sakura whispered with a crack of her voice. Ino smiled once again.</p>
<p>"Oh and we all shouldn't forget this mysterious guy who clearly knows you're worth all this attention" Ino spoke. She heard Sakura chuckled quietly before she disappeared in a flash of pink. "Good luck...forehead..."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Itachi walked along the rows of graves until a blur of pink caught his eye. He was wondering where she had vanished to from her friend's flower shop. He adverted his path heading towards Sakura. She sat between two graves, her head resting on the tombstone of the left one. Sakura, at the sound of Itachi's footsteps, sat up pushing her hair out of her face and off her shoulders. She had let it grow out so it now sat a little below her shoulders. Though her body faced him, her eyes stayed planted on the ground. Itachi glanced at the two stone headstones and felt his jaw tighten. The right one had written on it: <em>Kizashi Haruno. </em>The left was carved with Sakura's mother's name: <em>Mebuki Haruno. </em>When he looked back at Sakura, his eyes met hers as more tears flew down her face.</p>
<p>"Your father was the only one who believed me" Sakura whispered finally speaking. Itachi's blood ran cold as he stared at her. "I was 12... I hadn't even graduated the academy yet," Sakura's voice was soft but cracked as she spoke. "But, you know that... don't you, Itachi?" Her voice became monotone and her face stone cold. His eyes widen slightly. <em>What? That's impossible, she couldn't have known that I was... I was too careful for her to notice anything!</em></p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Itachi watched as Sakura's knees buckled under her weight. He had promised not to intervene when she was like this but if she fell from that height, she'd kill herself. As she finally let go of the tree, Itachi ground his teeth together. Why wouldn't she just use that extra chakra she was storing!? It could save her life but instead, her body put the barrier up allowing only a tiny amount of chakra to seep into the charka reserve. Itachi jumped off his own branch, in mid-air, he wrapped one arm around her upper body while the other rested under her legs. He sighed as he landed, she had passed out from the excessive use of her chakra. Itachi rested her against one of the trees before going and packing everything up. She'd likely be awake when he finished and he had decided she was done for the day.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>...</em>
</p><p> </p><p><em>Itach</em><em>i sighed to himself, he hadn't expected to be carrying Sakura home today. Her head rested against his shoulder with her left hand clutching his shirt as he carried her bridal style to her home. He</em> <em>stood</em> <em>outside </em> <em>the</em> <em>house </em> <em>and looked up, he narrowed his eyes slightly, he couldn't sense a single chakra source inside. Maybe her parents were out? He shrugged it off and jumped up to her balcony. It was typical of her to leave her balcony open, he knew this from the last time she had exhausted herself and he brought her home. She had forgotten her keys and instead said goodbye and jumped up to the balcony and entered her room.</em></p><p>
  <em>Itachi pushed the wall tall glass doors open gently before entering the room. He froze for a second to scan her room, all walls were a plain white and she had everything sorted neatly beside the pile of books sprawled over the floor at the foot of her bed. He walked over to the bed and gently placed her down. As he went to lean back up, Sakura's hand gripped his shirt tighter and a quiet whimper escaped her lips. Itachi frowned slightly and grabbed hold of her hand, "You're safe, Sakura" Itachi whispered. Sakura's hand slowly let go of his shirt as she snuggled into her pillow.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Itachi glanced back at Sakura before entering the rest of the house. It seemed like a normal house, neat and tidy with everything in its rightful place. Until he stumbled upon the master bedroom. The door had yellow police tape wrapped around it, he narrowed his eyes at it. Why would this be here? He had never heard of a crime being committed at the Haruno resident, surely he would have if it had happened of late. He tapped his foot against the floor gently, curiosity did kill the cat... more like Sakura would kill the Uchiha. He grimaced at the thought of Sakura finding out he was wandering her house without permission. It wasn't anything like his normal person but he hoped the mysterious of this pinkette would be somewhat revealed by her belongs and he wanted to know why he only felt her chakra.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Against his own advice, Itachi opened the door and stepped into the master bedroom. He instantly wished he hadn't. The room smelt of death and despair. Most of the floor was stained red, the bed stripped of everything including the mattress, showing that the floor under it was also stained. Objects in the room were still covered in splats of blood, including a picture frame on the bedside table. Itachi tried to force himself to leave, this was too personal for him to be invading like this, but he couldn't. His feet carried him over to the photo, without touching it he examined the picture. It was Sakura with who he assumed were her parents, Sakura couldn't have been any older than 10 in it. A grin from ear to ear as she held her parent's arms. This is why he could only feel her chakra. Her parents were murdered in this room.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>It was nearly five months ago that happened, how long had she known!? Sakura's face softened at him. "It's like a sixth sense of mine... I know whenever that door has been opened. The smell...it just reeks the whole house out" Sakura answered his unasked question. "I don't blame you for being curious, I would have done the same thing" She replied with a shrug. Itachi couldn't find any words so he just stared at the crying girl.</p><p>"I assume because the Uchiha clan is Konoha's police force, you have access to the police files. Right?" She asked.</p><p>"Yes...I'm sorry, Sakura. I should have minded my own business" Itachi truly meant it, he didn't have any right to pry around in her life. Sakura shook her head and patted the ground next to her.</p><p>"Really, Itachi... you don't have to apologise" She reassured him as he sat down.</p><p>The two sat in silence for several minutes, Sakura resting her head on Itachi's upper arm while she played with the flower in her hand. "The last thing I said to them was that...that... I hate them" Sakura broke the silence as she stopped twirling the flower around. Itachi looked down at her with a frown. "I ran out of the house... the thought of never seeing them again didn't even cross my mind" She added.</p><p>"Why?" Itachi spoke quietly watching her expression as she stared at her flower. Her face scrunched up as she tried to keep the tears in.</p><p>"I don't even remember! Kami, I'm such an annoying brat! I couldn't just respect my parents, could I?!" She hissed more to herself than him.</p><p>"You can't talk about yourself like that. You couldn't have ever known that something like that would happen, Sakura" Itachi tried to reassure her. Sakura sighed and shook her head slightly. Itachi moved his arm to wrap around her shoulders, her head fell onto his chest but neither moved.</p><p>"You read the report? What did it say... about the crime scene?" She asked glancing up at him.</p><p>"Why don't you tell me what happened?" He replied looking back at her. Sakura quickly looked away with pink ears.</p><p>"I returned home to...nothing...no food, no laughter or talking. Even all the lights were turned off. I thought maybe they had gone to bed early," Sakura started looking back at her flower. "I knocked on their bedroom door but got no answer... I wanted to apologise to them for being a bitch. I went in with my eyes closed. I wasn't ready to face them, but I knew I had no choice." Sakura shuddered at the memories. It had been so long since she thought back onto that night. "I...I slipped over... and when I opened my eyes..." Sakura trailed off squeezing her eyes shut. Itachi tightened his grip around her shoulders pulling her closer to him. "I found myself in the pool of their blood... their eyes...they were just staring at me...into my soul, I'll never forget it." Sakura's hands started to tremble. "My mother's throat was slashed from ear to ear. The cut was so deep that it cut into the bone... and my father... he had a knife wound to the heart" Itachi started to rub her arm gently, a gesture that comforted Sakura.</p><p>"I crawled over to my mother...through their blood... and hugged her... that's why they all thought I was responsible. Because I was drenched in their blood."</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Year 3</b>
</p><p>Sakura watched through half-shut eyes. Her left shoulder was dislocated but the bleeding from her left pointer and middle finger had finally stopped. Her right eye was swollen and she could feel the blood trickling down her neck. Not that she cared, it meant the others hadn't been touched and that was all she cared about. When she tried to escape last time, by dislocating her shoulder and wiggling out of the binds, her captures saw and slammed her head into the ground. She nicked her forehead on a rock and her captures decided they enjoyed removing parts of her fingers slowly and were in the middle of cutting her right middle finger off when their boss came in and forced them to stop. Both Sakura's teammates' heads flew to look at her as a blast of chakra hit them. By the time any of their captures noticed, Sakura's binds were on the floor broken and she was slicing them down with a rock she had slowly sharpened over their time there. She walked over to the last guard and slit his throat before running over to her comrade.</p><p>The three team members had been cornered in the top floor of the underground hideout. Sakura growled quietly as the enemies started to surround them, "What's the plan, Pinkie?" Her teammate on her left asked. She couldn't help but chuckle at his stupid nickname.</p><p>"Since when did I become captain?" She enquired grabbing hold of her left shoulder and pulling it back into place.</p><p>"Since you can do that without crying! Plus, if I make you team captain then the failure and capture lands on you" He replied grinning. Sakura chuckled balling her right hand up into a fist and focusing a small but damageable amount of chakra to it.</p><p>"Well, I don't plan on failing. Let's say we break out of this shithole, huh?" She asked and was met by two pairs of red eyes and grins. "Fantastic" She responded before jumping and punching the roof. The roof and walls around them started to crumble from the force. Her right teammate noticed the first chance of an exit.</p><p>"This way!" He ordered racing to it with the others following. The three looked around as they started to race away from the hideout.</p><p>"I've sensed a hundred- no, three hundred! Damn, it just keeps growing!" Sakura screamed as she slid to a stop with her teammates. They turned around and found enemies flying out of the hideout like ants.</p><p>"It's too many for us to run, we'll have to fight. Sakura?" Sakura ground her teeth together but nodded.</p><p>"Yes, we will have to stand and fight" She replied before smirking. She weaved several hand signs that the other two had never seen her use, before biting down on her thumb and slamming her hand on the ground. The two boys jumped back as the smoke faded away.</p><p>"Mistress Tsunade?" A sweet voice asked as Sakura waved the smoke away from her face.</p><p>"Not this time, Lady Katsuyu" Sakura replied looking down at the blue and white slug. She was about half the size of Sakura and looked rather confused. "I need you to heal the boys and I would like you to send word to Lady Tsunade on our current position and condition. Can you do that for me?" Sakura requested. Katsuyu nodded before splitting herself into three, two climbed onto the shoulders of Sakura's teammates while the other went to climb onto Sakura.</p><p>"No need for that, Lady Katsuyu. Just go to Lady Fifth, please" Sakura instructed before sprinting off into battle.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>"SHE'S WHAT!?" The fifth Hokage's voice could be heard from several streets away. Lady Katsuyu looked down as she sat on Tsunade's desk. "And what are those two idiots I sent with her doing!?"</p><p>"Her teammates are currently being healed, they have very little chakra and strength. At this moment, Lady Sakura has taken out nearly all of the enemy." Katsuyu replied informing Tsunade about the battle she was watching.</p><p>"What does she think she's doing? She's a medical ninja, she has rules to follow" Shizune muttered with a sigh.</p><p>"I believe you have no need to worry about Lady Sakura's..." Katsuyu trailed off focusing on Sakura's fight. Sakura had gotten down to the last enemy, their leader. Sakura was puffing as she watched her enemy get ready to fight. She had to end this now and get her team back home. Her teammates watched as the two started to fight, still arguing over whether they should have helped or not.</p><p>"There is no point, you would have only gotten in her way" Katsuyu responded. Tsunade's eye twitched as she could listen to Katsuyu's response to them (as they could hear her responses to Tsunade) but she knew Katsuyu was right.</p><p>"What happened?" Tsunade asked as Katsuyu's head started to drop shutting her eyes tightly.</p><p>"It's...Lady Sakura...she...Sakura Haruno is dead."</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>His eyes widened in fear as Sakura stopped mid-fight. Something flew from the enemy into Sakura's head. Her head jerked backwards at the impact before her body collapsed to her knees then fell forward to the ground motionless. Before any other thoughts came to mind, he started to race over towards her but was yanked backwards. All he could see was red... blood red and Sakura's limp body.</p><p>"She's gone, Itachi! She's dead!" </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Itachi froze as the enemy appeared in front of him. As he went to attack, a hand grabbed the outstretched enemy's arm. Itachi stepped back in shock as the enemy's arm was bent backwards. The sound of the cracking bones then a howl of pain filled the battlefield. In a flash of red and pink, the enemy's heart was sitting out of their body. Sakura was standing there, her arm plunged through the man's chest and her hand now held his beating heart out his back. "Do you know that if I squeeze like this," Sakura started to squeeze his heart softly, her voice was dark and quiet. "Your heart will beat faster, not fast enough to cause too much damage but just enough...to hurt." She whispered as the man looked at her trembling in fear.</p><p>"What if I was to put some extra chakra into your veins? Hmm?" Power surged through the man, he screeched in pain. It was like opening one of the eight gates, the power burned him from the inside.</p><p>"B-but...but how!?" He yelled with a glare.</p><p>"It's just lucky for me that this is my third year of training under the fifth Hokage... Unlucky for you that I have finally reached full capacity" Sakura smirked as she used her left hand to tap her forehead. "Rule number three: no medical ninja shall ever die unless they are the last of their platoon. And rule number four: only those medical ninja who have mastered the strength of a hundred technique of the ninja art creation rebirth are permitted to discard the above-mentioned laws" Sakura recited two of the four medic ninja rules, her smirk growing larger.</p><p>"Now, I don't think I have any use for you anymore" She muttered before crushing his heart. Sakura let go of his heart, placed her left hand on the limp corpse and held it tightly before yanking her arm out of his chest. Sakura sighed dropping the heart before turning to face her teammates. She felt something stab her heart as she noticed Itachi's face flowing with tears then her heart stopped. She had never seen that sharingan before, when did he get it? How did he get it? "Uh, I'm...sorry?" She asked before she was pulled into a bear hug by their other teammate who was sobbing his heart out. Itachi's vision turned back to normal as he stared at Sakura. Coming back to his senses, he shook his head as he watched the thick lines of Sakura's face retract back into the new diamond shape on her forehead.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>4 Years</b>
</p><p>Naruto slammed the door open and sprinted into the Hokage's office with a grin, "We're back!" He announced as Sasuke and Kakashi followed behind him. Tsunade's eye twitched as she looked up at him.</p><p>"YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE SO NOISY!" She screeched back at him before sighing. "I assume these last four years were spent well?" She asked.</p><p>"Hn, we have improved. Some more than others" Sasuke commented, Naruto glared at him with balled-up fists.</p><p>"Alright, alright! Enough from you two" Kakashi muttered patting their heads while pushing them away from each other.</p><p>"Now that we're back, I'm going to see Sakura! I can't wait to show her all my new skills!" Naruto cheered as Sasuke rolled his eyes.</p><p>"Sakura is not here at the moment, Naruto" Tsunade informed them as she looked back down at her paperwork.</p><p>"Not here? Where is she then?" Sasuke asked with furrowed eyebrows.</p><p>"She is out on a solo mission; she should return within a few hours" Tsunade mumbled not paying too much attention to them.</p><p>"Solo mission? She could get hurt" Kakashi stepped forward, concern clear on his face. Tsunade sighed deeply before looking back at him.</p><p>"It has been four years, Kakashi. I know the strengths and limitations of my apprentice. And it is not a dangerous mission, she is only collecting information from neighbouring towns. Now get out of my office" She ordered with a shake of her head. How could they act as if they knew Sakura? After all this time.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Sakura sighed walking up to the training grounds. When she returned Tsunade had asked her to come here. Of course, she couldn't argue with her even though she had been out of the village for a week on that solo mission. Sakura looked up hearing chattering and froze after seeing those in the training grounds. In the middle stood Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi and Jiraiya. Just in front of them was Tsunade and Shizune chatting to themselves. Sakura could also sense team 8, team 10 and team Gai in the tree lines.</p><p>"Sakura!" Naruto's voice made all their attention turn to Sakura as she walked over to Tsunade.</p><p>"You didn't tell me they were home" Sakura muttered before moving swiftly to the side as Naruto tried to hug her. Naruto fell face-first onto the ground groaning Sakura's name. Sakura rolled her eyes before grabbing the back of his collar and yanking him up then tossing him over to Sasuke and Kakashi. The two caught Naruto before he could hit the ground again. Kakashi looked up from Naruto with narrowed eyes. Sakura stood with newfound confidence, her right hand resting on her hip as she lent to one side. Her face was hardened like an experienced shinobi, a dark shadow cast over her making her frightening, even to him.</p><p>"Sakura?" Kakashi asked, still unsure if this was the same girl he remembered. The girl who was frightened of thunderstorms when they first became a team. Her eyes moved from Naruto to him, not losing their harden, scarred look.</p><p>"Kakashi" Her voice was stone cold. He felt a pinch at his heart, when did the sensei disappear from his name?</p><p>"Nice hair" Sasuke commented with a small smirk, expecting to get a bite from her. Sakura glanced at him then back at her hair. She had her hair resting over her right shoulder where it rested to her hips, the only short part of her hair was her side bangs which never really bothered her. Sasuke narrowed his eyes watching her expression go from bored to surprised. She hadn't grown it out because of that stupid rumour that he liked long hair?</p><p>"Huh, I didn't even realise it got this long" She muttered with a shrug before looking back up at them.</p><p>"Moving onto the reason why we're here! We can do greetings later!" Tsunade yelled noticing Naruto getting over his shock. "I want to see how much you've all improved. You three versus Kakashi" She grinned down at Sakura whose eye twitched.</p><p>"You do remember that they are still genin?" Sakura asked making Sasuke scoff.</p><p>"So are you, Sakura. Remember? You didn't get past the preliminary rounds at the chunin exams" Sasuke commented crossing his arms over his chest. Sakura growled as she balled her fists up turning them white while digging her nails into her palm before taking a deep breath.</p><p>"Shall we just get on with it?" Sakura asked. The Hokage nodded before her and her assistant jumped off to the sidelines with Jiraiya.</p><p>Sakura walked over to Naruto and Sasuke, "We should come up with a plan. We need to disenable his ey-"</p><p>"Just leave this to us, Sakura!" Naruto cut her off starting to charge at Kakashi.</p><p>"Hn, dope's right. Don't want you getting yourself hurt for no reason" Sasuke added sprinting after Naruto. Sakura froze in her spot watching the two fight with Kakashi. Her heart started to ache as her hands trembled, she felt like she was going back to when she was a genin. Watching Naruto and Sasuke from behind while she was left in the dust. Again.</p><p><em>Isn't this meant to be a team exercise? Well, don't just stand there! Show them what you’re capable of! </em>Sakura mentally sighed, she was still trying to impress them? No... no this was for Lady Tsunade. To prove to her that Sakura could be the bigger person, that she was over those feelings. She wasn't weak anymore.</p><p>Sakura watched as Naruto and Sasuke started to fight over who lost Kakashi when he puffed into smoke revealing Naruto trying to strangle Sasuke. Sakura turned around sensing the chakra underground, she balled her fist up before jumping into the air. She punched the ground inches from Kakashi, his head flew to the side with wide eyes as he watched the blur of pink flew past his head. She had shattered half of the training ground with that one punch. Before Kakashi could question how she got that strong, he saw her punch directed towards him.</p><p>"How is she so fast!?" Naruto screamed only being able to watch the flashes of pink and silver from Kakashi and Sakura fighting. Sakura slid across the unaffected part of the training grounds getting ready to strike again when Sasuke and Naruto jumped in front of her.</p><p>"Thought we told you to leave this to us, annoying" Sasuke said looking over his shoulder at her. Sakura sneered looking into his red eyes, she could just rip them out of his face if it wasn't the fact he was a comrade. Sakura watched as they once again charged at Kakashi, the scene made her remember when they first fought Zabuza in the land of waves. She smirked to herself, that's just what she had to do.</p><p>It didn't take long for Sakura to note nobody was paying attention to her, she did a series of hand signs before disappearing and appearing behind the tree near Kakashi. When he focused on Naruto, Sakura rushed out and jumped in the air next to Kakashi with a smirk. In a split reaction, Kakashi activated his Chidori striking Sakura's left shoulder. Sakura screamed in pain as she kicked herself away from them and collapsed to the ground holding her shoulder.</p><p>"Sakura!" The three raced over to her as she trembled. Kakashi was the first to hear it, spinning around with wide teary eyes then Sasuke whose Sharingan deactivated. Naruto only noticed they were paying attention when the Sakura in front of him giggled then disappeared in a puff of smoke being replaced with a log.</p><p>"Guess I win" Sakura commented swinging both bells in her hand with a grin. Kakashi tapped his side where the bells where but nothing was there.</p><p>"But...how?" Kakashi asked.</p><p>"Pretty easily actually. I was hidden within the shadow of my clone, you were too distracted... uh stabbing her to notice me grabbing the bells" Sakura explained with a chuckle.</p><p>"What happened to teamwork!?" Sasuke yelled with a glare. Sakura looked at him with a twitching eye. She tossed the bells over to Kakashi.</p><p>"Sasuke..." Naruto tried to shimmer down the situation.</p><p>"Aw, what's wrong, Sasuke? Upset because you got beat by the annoying girl?" Sakura teased with a shake of her head. "No, you're right, Sasuke. I wasn't playing as a team member, for several reasons. Reason one, I was bored and you were taking too long. Reason two, you and Naruto are acting like children and I couldn't stand it anymore" Sakura explained with a shrug.</p><p>"We were not acting like children!" Naruto yelled with his own glare. What the hell was going on? This wasn't Sakura.</p><p>"You two only care about being better than the other. You don't work as a team and when you do, you certainly don't let anyone else join that team. You do remember Lady fifth said it was us <b>three </b>against Kakashi? Or did that just wash over your brainless heads like everything else?" Sakura was trying to keep her cool but with them talking like she did something wrong made her want to break them in half. "There is more to being a shinobi then proving you're more powerful than your rival." She added. Tsunade smiled at her maturity, if this had have been two years ago she could only imagine the tarnish Sakura would leave in her wake.</p><p>"Oh and my third reason to not being a team player. I'm not a part of team 7, I never will be nor do I ever want to be. I don't even want to see your faces again; I would have been more than happy if you left and never came back!" </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Team 7 finally noticed how Sakura looked, beyond the heartless façade. Her arms were covered in faded scars, the most visible one on her left shoulder. It started on at her elbow and curved to the front of her arm all the way up to her chin. The only covered part was what sat under the collar of Sakura's outfit. Her face was covered in light scratches. Sakura pushed her hair off her shoulder sighing quietly.</p><p>"Is there anything else you would like from me, my lady?" Sakura asked looking at Tsunade.</p><p>"Yes actually, Sakura. I expected something like this might occur. I want team 7 to go up against team Uchiha" Tsunade informed them. Sakura sneered leaning to one side as Sasuke narrowed his eyes, <em>team Uchiha? What the hell?</em></p><p>"Not all of team Uch-" Sakura was cut off by someone jumping out in front of her.</p><p>"You didn't notice us watching, Pinkie?!" Sakura screamed in surprise and jumped back before going to punch the person who scared her but her wrist was grabbed.</p><p>"Probably not a good idea, Sakura. We do need all three members" Itachi's soft voice spoke from her right. She huffed and looked away with a scrunched-up face. "And I've already warned you after last time not to scare her, Shisui." Itachi said looking at their other teammate. Shisui's laughs at Sakura faded as he pouted.</p><p>"Not my fault, she's the one who didn't sense us" He muttered crossing his arms.</p><p>"You wanna say that again, Shisui!?" Sakura screamed getting ready to punch him again expect Itachi hadn't let go of her wrist.</p><p>Sasuke watched in horror, how did someone as weak as Sakura manage to get on a team with two Uchiha? More than that, his brother was one of them! He watched as Sakura moved her arm down but Itachi still held her wrist. Sasuke's fingers twitched as Itachi's hand crept down to Sakura's and entangled their fingers together. What the hell is going on in this village!?</p><p>"So what does team Uchiha say?" Tsunade asked raising an eyebrow.</p><p>"I don't see why not" Shisui replied with a grin looking at Sakura and Itachi.</p><p>"Whatever" Sakura replied with a shrug. Itachi nodded in response.</p><p>"Are you three ready to fight again?" Tsunade asked turning to face team 7 who all nodded.</p><p>"Ahhhh! They're going to fight together!" Ino's squeal echoed around the training grounds, they all turned to face her. She was getting giggly and excited with Tenten and Hinata. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at them.</p><p>"What's their prob-"</p><p>"Ehhh!" Sakura screamed pulling her hand away from Itachi, both their cheeks burned bright red as they looked away from each other. "Stupid Ino" She muttered crossing her arms. Ever since Ino found out who Itachi was, she's been shipping the two together. Itachi and Sakura often ignored her but sometimes it was too much.</p><p>"Can we just carry on?" Sakura asked untying her hitai-ate and placing it around her forehead.</p><p>"Someone means business" Shisui chuckled as Sakura tightened it with a smirk.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Sakura walked over to Itachi and Shisui placing one hand on each of their shoulders. "I think it's time to use it" Sakura spoke giving their shoulders a squeeze. "I'll lend you my chakra, Itachi" She added.</p><p>"That's dangerous! For such a nonlife-threatening fight!" Shisui yelled with wide eyes. Sakura sighed quietly as she placed both hands on Itachi's shoulders. Itachi glanced at her fingers and felt his jaw tightening.</p><p>"Not to mention, they are fellow Konoha shinobi" Itachi muttered.</p><p>"They want to show off their skills so much, why not show off ours?" Sakura replied.</p><p>"The last time we tried this, you were in a coma for two months!" Shisui tried to convince her to stop.</p><p>"Well, no time like the present to practice, huh?" Sakura grinned at him starting to transfer her chakra to Itachi. Team 7 watched carefully, Sasuke keeping his eye on Sakura's hands with narrowed eyes.</p><p>"What the hell are they plan-" Sasuke was cut off as Sakura stepped away from Itachi. Sakura balled her right fist up focusing a large amount of chakra into it. Itachi nodded his head and she took off towards team 7. The four weaved around each other, each member of team 7 trying to hit Sakura while dodging her fist.</p><p>"We shouldn't let her keep doing this, with the amount of chakra she needs to put in that fist" Shisui muttered watching Itachi's first stage of Susanoo form around him.</p><p>"It's Sakura's choice and the more practice she gets, the quicker she'll recover from it" He replied focusing on Sakura's chakra infused fist.</p><p>"Do you remember last time? She had to use the seal just to stay awake while doing it" Shisui reminded Itachi.</p><p>"...You speak as if I'll ever forget those missions we went on" He muttered grounding his teeth together.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>
  <em>Sakura held her stomach as she lied against the tree watching Shisui and Itachi fight. She had promised she'd never let her team down again but here she was, letting them down. Sakura finished sticking the skin back together and stood up fumbling over to Itachi. She placed her hand on his arm gently, "I...Itachi, let me help" She coughed out.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sakura! You're in no condition to fight" He ordered grabbing her arms and trying to guide her back to her tree. She just pushed him off.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"How much chakra do you have left?"</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>...</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Shisui and Itachi watched as Sakura nearly collapsed, "We have to stop her, Itachi!" Shisui ordered. He knew if she did fall then Itachi would protect her but that wasn't the point, she shouldn't have been out there.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Do you remember Lady Hokage's orders, Shisui? I do not like them either but... she wants us to let Sakura do what she has to" Itachi reminded him keeping both eyes on Sakura. His body tensed as he watched the black marks wrap around her body.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Yeah, but did you have to go to the third stage?" Shisui muttered before his eyes widen watching Sakura come to life and demolish the enemy. Once she was finished, the marks wrapped back to her forehead as Itachi took his own jutsu away. Sakura turned around with a grin.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I did it!" She called out before her eyes fluttered shut and she started to collapse. Shisui shook his head and chuckled to himself as Itachi appeared behind her and caught her.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Why don't you two just get together already" He muttered scratching the back of his head.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Sasuke narrowed his eyes at Itachi, he had the first stage of Susanoo activated. But why? Sakura was the one att- Sasuke looked at Sakura just in time to notice the orange bones surrounding her fist.</p><p>"DON'T LET HER TOUCH YOU" He screeched. Naruto and Kakashi looked at her with wide eyes as she skimmed past Naruto's head and punched the ground next to them. None of them had the time to react and was sent flying in the rumble.</p><p>Once the dust had cleared, Sakura scanned her eyes and saw the three hidden under some rumble. "WE GIVE UP" Naruto's voice boomed from his current crushed position. Sakura chuckled quietly before she felt herself start to fall back but she landed against someone. She leant her head into Itachi's chest as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder.</p><p>"You put too much chakra into that, for such a wasteful attack" He muttered looking down at her. Sakura chuckled quietly.</p><p>"I wouldn't have needed that much if you had gone with the second stage AND it was not wasteful. We won, didn't we?" She asked pointing up at him with her left hand. Itachi looked at her finger with a small frown.</p><p>"I suppose you did win it for us, again" He replied. The two of them ignoring the groans and cries of pain from team 7 and the squeals from the girls. Sakura looked up at him with a small smile and glimmering eyes. Her heart always fluttered when he reminded her that he was proud of her or that she was in fact useful. "I'll take you home, you need some rest" Itachi mumbled starting to lift her up.</p><p>"No...I'm fine" She responded taking a deep breath. "I only disturbed my smaller chakra reserve" She added. Itachi scoffed at her.</p><p>"I thought teammates didn't lie to each other?" He raised an eyebrow at her. She looked away with pink ears.</p><p>"Fine...but I don't need to be carried."</p><p>Sasuke crossed his arms watching the three team members leave together, Sakura still leaning on Itachi for support. Ino shook her head walking over with the others. "I know what you're thinking, Sasuke. Get that idea out of your mind" Ino said crossing her arms. Sasuke looked at her raising an eyebrow.</p><p>"And you know what I'm thinking...how?" Sasuke growled quietly. The rest of the group watched in amusement.</p><p>"Because we," Ino gestured to the rest of them. "all thought the same thing when we found out who he was," Ino said. "You think she's just replacing you with your older brother but she's not. Once you see them together, you'll see what we mean" Ino informed him. Sasuke scrunched his nose up at her.</p><p>"I highly doubt that" He replied with a scoff.</p><p>"Well, you'll never know if you don't try" Ino replied with a shake of her hand.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>There was a small mix up with chapters 10 &amp; 11 and chapter 11 was posted instead of 10. Sorry for any confusion, hope you all enjoy.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sakura sighed deeply resting her chin in her palm. She had been waiting for thirty minutes, he was never this late... maybe he had just decided to meet her at the shop. Sakura got up with an unsettling feeling in her stomach and made her way through the streets to the dango shop. She peeked in and frowned, nobody there.</p>
<p>"Ah hello, Sakura!" The shop owner greeted her with a grin. She smiled back leaning against the entrance wall. "What can I do for ya? The usual?" She asked as Sakura sighed.</p>
<p>"Have you seen Itachi today? We were, uh meant to meet up but he's late" Sakura explained, the shop owner giggled to herself. Sakura would normally speak with unwavering confidence but when it came to Itachi, she was always stuttering or at a loss for words.</p>
<p>"Sorry, Sakura, but I haven't seen him today. He might be with Sasuke, I heard he returned" She replied with a shrug. Sakura's jaw tightened but quickly forced a smile.</p>
<p>"Well thank you, Ani... and can I get a box of the usual?" Sakura asked getting a giggle and nod in response. She looked out the door sighing quietly the uneasy feeling returning to her stomach. The last time she felt this uneasy about something concerning Itachi...she sighed, this was different from back then.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Sakura sat against the tree focusing on her chakra, Tsunade had informed her yesterday that she wouldn't be able to participate in surgeries if she couldn't get a handle of her chakra. She had figured out if she created a second, smaller reserve within herself then she would be able to use that while still being able to reserve chakra into her forehead. Her eye twitched open sensing Itachi's eyes on her.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Have I got something on my face, Itachi?" She inquired with an arched eyebrow. Itachi shook his head in response leaning further into his tree. Sakura titled her head slightly to the side, he was quiet today. It had been five months since Itachi decided to help her with her training. Surprising even Itachi himself, Sakura was able to get him to open up and even made him talkative within the second week of their training.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Sakura sighed to herself opening her other eye and turning her attention to Itachi. That's when her heart sunk into the pits of hell, her blood raced as memories of him invaded her mind. Itachi noticed her chest start to rise faster with a quickened breath and quivering hands.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Sakura?" He asked leaning forward slightly with narrowed eyes. Her eyes widen with... fear? Horror shining through them. She knew he was an Uchiha but she didn't realise he was...<strong> that</strong> Uchiha. He started to slowly walk over to her but froze as she flung herself off the ground. He could feel her chakra going wild in a panic. "Sakura, you need to calm down" He reached out towards her slowly.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"When were you going to tell me!? You didn't think I'd put it together, Itachi Uchiha!?" She spat. He physically flinched at how she spoke his name in disgust and rage. While Sakura noticed him flinch, she didn't care, she was seething. Every inch of her body wanted to pummel him into the ground. Before Itachi could say anything to try and calm her down, her anger vanished. Her eyes fell to the ground with slumped shoulders. Something stabbed at his heart, he had betrayed her.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Sakur..." Itachi sighed as she vanished in a flash of pink.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>...</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Sakura clutched her chest as she walked into the Hokage's office. Both Shizune and Tsunade looked up at her, they hadn't heard word from her for two days and nobody had seen her leave her home. "Sakura? What's wrong?" Tsunade asked immediately dropping all her work seeing the pain-stricken look on her face and her clutched hand.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"I...I'm not sure" She whispered in response as her teacher forced her to take a seat and started to check over her.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"You don't seem to have any physical wounds that I can see, what happened?" Tsunade asked eyes full of concern. Sakura had never looked so lost before, even when team 7 left her behind.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"It started two days ago... after I-" Sakura's hand clutched her chest tighter, hissing in pain as she dropped her head. Tsunade and Shizune glanced at each other, silently agreeing with each other. Whatever had happened, it was emotional and Sakura's brain was creating physical pain as a way to deal with it.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Look here, Sakura" Tsunade spoke quietly lifting her head up. Sakura's face had gone splotchy red from the waterfall of tears.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"I...it hurts so much..." Sakura choked out as Tsunade rubbed her back.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"You need to tell me what happened, it's the only way I can fix this" The Hokage may have been tough on her student but the more she trained with Sakura, the more love she felt towards her. Sakura was almost like her adopted daughter.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"He lied to me! He knew who I was and still he kept it from me! I saw it in his eyes!" She suddenly screamed out as her other hand flew to her chest, clutching her right hand. Sakura squeezed her eyes shut but their faces flashed in front of her. Red eyes, black eyes, cocky smiles, sweet smiles, the word 'annoying' echoed throughout her head. Her hands flew from her chest to her ears trying to block the mixture of voices. Tsunade tried to calm Sakura down but it was nearly impossible as Sakura started to gag on the air.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE!"</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sakura was walking along with her box of dango in her arms, if he wasn't in those two stops then she would likely find him in one of the training grounds. When she stopped at the edge of their normal training spot, she suppressed her chakra and hid behind a tree watching. There was a stab of pain in her chest but at the same time, a smile crept onto her face. Itachi and Sasuke were practising taijutsu together and it looked like Itachi was winning.</p>
<p><em>He better win. Considering the way we train taijutsu.</em> Sakura chuckled to herself before pulling out a pen and paper. She quickly scribbled down a note and stuck on the box. When the two were in the mid of another spar, Sakura snuck over to their bags and placed the box down. She smiled one last time watching them before disappearing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Itachi furrowed his eyebrows as he walked over to their belongings. "What's got you confused...what's that?" Sasuke asked peeping over his brother's shoulder with raised eyebrows. Itachi lent down grabbing the note.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Sorry if I interrupted your spar, I hope you two have fun.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>I have to go but I got you a treat, you deserve it.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Also, don't feel guilty like I know you will, Itachi.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>-Cherry Blossom</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>P.S don't forget to share with your brother, sharing is caring </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Itachi sighed quietly with a shake of his head, he had completely forgotten about meeting her today. He placed the note down, reminding himself to pick it up later and turned back to the box. Sasuke snatched the note from the ground and scanned it.</p>
<p>"Feel guilty? About what? And since when does Sakura write notes?" The questions fumbled out of Sasuke's mouth before he could stop them, she never wrote him any notes like this... nor did she ever buy him and Naruto... "treats" so what was she playing at? Itachi arched an eyebrow at him.</p>
<p>"I forgot about meeting up with her but it seems she isn't too mad," Itachi smirked at his little brother. "Are you jealous, Sasuke?" He teased.</p>
<p>Sasuke's ears turned pink as he scoffed. “Jealous of what? She's nothing special"</p>
<p>"That's why you never got anything from her" Itachi shot back. <em>Nothing special about her? Our father would disagree.</em></p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Is she always this destructive?" Naruto muttered surveying the destroyed terrain. Sakura stood in the middle with a glowing green hand pressed to her upper arm.</p>
<p>"Uh yeah just about" Shisui replied as he landed in front of Naruto and Ino.</p>
<p>"It only got worse with each mission" Ino murmured rubbing her forehead.</p>
<p>"Missions?" Naruto arched an eyebrow looking at Ino. Her head dropped as she closed her eyes sighing. Naruto's eyes went to Shisui whose hands had dug into the dirt.</p>
<p>"Sakura's been through a lot... all of team Uchiha has" Shisui replied watching Sakura with sorrow-filled eyes. "You haven't noticed, Naruto?" Shisui asked making Ino look up at Naruto. She expected him to be the first to notice, expect maybe Kakashi.</p>
<p>"Notice what? I mean she's different... she's stronger but she's still our Sakura!" Naruto answered. Both Ino and Shisui sweatdropped at his response, of course the knucklehead hadn't noticed. "Oh, you mean that mark on her forehead? The one granny has, that's new" Naruto added with a grin assuming he figured it out.</p>
<p>"That's one thing I suppose" Ino muttered trying to crease out the ever-growing wrinkles in her forehead.</p>
<p>"It was our first low B-rank mission about a year ago... if it wasn't for Sakura; Itachi and I would be dead. And if it wasn't for us... she wouldn't be this way" Shisui explained as the painful memories washed over him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Shisui watched Sakura's muscles tense as the first blade cut into her skin. Her head slammed into the metal table they had her tied to, her eyes glaring at the ceiling as she refused to scream. He glanced to his right to look at Itachi. The normally calm and collected shinobi was trying his hardest to break from his bonds, face burning with anger and his eyes turning red. Not that he could do much, they had little chakra from their previous battles. Shisui mentally sighed looking back at Sakura, Itachi had grown too close to the girl.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>...</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Everything was silent except for Sakura's heavy breathing. She was lying against Itachi trembling, both now covered in her blood. The boys had tried to get her to heal her wounds, but she shook her head. It would give her away to the captures. If she healed herself, then they could torture them forever. She only healed them enough to stop the bleeding when Itachi begged her. Their eyes snapped towards the doors and watched the boss of the operation enter, well who they assumed was the boss. He smirked at them; Sakura's eyes widen in rage with a low growl echoing from the back of her throat. He glanced at her wounds that were healing quicker than possible.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"So the brat's got the ability to heal?" He asked not bothering to address them. Sakura pushed herself up and charged at him. Before she could dig her claws into those smug eyes, her arms were grabbed and she was yanked backwards. She screamed in both agony and fury as whoever grabbed her slammed her onto the metal table once again. "Do you have any idea on how much I lost because of you and your punk team?" The boss hissed at Sakura who kept her rage-filled eyes on him. She was going to break him apart, one limb at a time. Her anger started to come down as she noticed something off about him, he hadn't aged a day but it had been over five years since she saw him. She chuckled and leant her head against the table.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"You can release your shitty genjutsu. I know you're not Gato, he's dead" Sakura informed their captures.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"I'm quite impressed you managed to see through that, a weak Konoha kunoichi like yourself" The boss replied before waving his hand. "But none the less, you will tell me what I want" He was certain of that much. Shisui and Itachi watched as the two men who pinned Sakura to the table picked her back up and placed her on her feet before forcing her onto her knees. The one on the right grabbed her right arm and placed it on the table pinning her hand down with both hands. Sakura's eyes widen and the boys watched as she turned back to a frightened little girl, trying to escape from a nightmare.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Shisui felt his stomach churn, it was lucky they hadn't eaten. He didn't think it would affect him but seeing Sakura's fear-stricken face as she begged and cried, it was destroying him. She was like his little sister and he couldn't do a damn thing to stop this. He could only imagine what Itachi was going through. The one on her left slammed her body into the metal table and held the back of her head forcing her to watch. She was too precious, too fragile for this. The man who was cutting her up before entered the room and walked over. He made sure the boys could watch as he lined up the freshly cleaned knife. Sakura looked at it, slamming her hand around but the man holding her wrist wouldn't give her hand room to get out of harm's way.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Now, now. I can't make perfect art if you don't stay still" The madman grinned at her, a face that would haunt her until she died. "And it'll only burn a bit... I'm sure as Lady Tsunade's student, you know what this liquid is" he cackled. Sakura stopped trying to break free but her whole body still shook wildly. Her eyes made their way to Itachi and Shisui and suddenly her body was calm, the fear vanishing from her. She just smiled weakly at them as the first cut was made.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"He cut off her whole right pinkie and ring finger. He only got halfway through her middle finger before she passed out... I'll never forget his words when she did, 'So weak, I could have done the whole hand. Oh well, it's no fun when they're not awake'... it was the only time they paid any attention to Itachi and I" Shisui finished looking at Naruto. He was completely pale and looked like he was going to vomit.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Itachi watched from afar. How was he meant to go up to her? When the last time he tried, she just stared at him with those broken jade eyes. He had broken her trust, just like his foolish little brother had. He rubbed his forehead in frustration, he should have just told her the truth from the start. But would she have accepted him if he had? His thoughts were cut off when Sakura collapsed clutching her chest. Itachi's eyes widen watching her scream out in pain, what the hell happened? She wasn't doing anything dangerous. Forgetting everything he could put her through, he ran out to her. Kneeling behind her, Itachi wrapped his arms around her gently and placed his hand over hers. "Can you hear me, Sakura?" He spoke softly not to scare her. Her eyes were shut as she panted. He peered over her shoulder when she didn't speak, she was unconscious. Itachi sighed and went to make a comment about worrisome she could make him but froze. Her chest wasn't moving and she was beginning to become pale.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>...</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Sakura was motionless in the hospital bed. Itachi stood near the door not daring to look away, he couldn't let anything happen to her. "You don't have to have a constant eye on her, she will be fine" Tsunade informed him as she entered the room with a clipboard.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"...Hn..." Tsunade rolled her eyes, typical Uchiha response.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"But I do have to speak to you about her condition" She looked at him with a hard look. Itachi tore his eyes away from Sakura and to the Hokage.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"What about her...condition?" Itachi asked.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"I'll get to the point. Sakura has had too many heartbreaks in her life. Her heart is weak and did in fact stop after you brought her in" Tsunade was blunt scanning the clipboard in her hands. Itachi narrowed his eyes, she's never shown any signs of a weak heart before.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"Why is it acting up now? She's never shown a single si..." If looks could kill, Itachi would be withering away on the floor.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"It's because of you, Itachi" Her words were like venom and it went straight to his heart. His eyes wandered back to Sakura's peaceful figure. "You didn't tell her that you're Sasuke's older brother," Itachi ground his teeth together so hard he feared they might break. "In her mind, you betrayed her by keeping it a secret. She informed me that you two had your first encounter before Naruto was on his solo mission. That's before I became Hokage, Itachi... but something tells me that isn't the first time you saw her." Tsunade raised an eyebrow, she always had a feeling there was something more to Sakura's sudden training partner.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"I was...intrigued when Sasuke kept mentioning her... I had been following her for a week when she did her reckless training session by herself. Gai was also watching her that day," Itachi informed her with shame riddled over his face. "I don't know why...but I couldn't see what Sasuke saw in her... she was completely different to everything he said," Itachi shook his head. "I should have told her and I take full responsibility for that, Lady Hokage" He spoke looking back at her. She nodded sighing.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"Yes well... I'm glad it came up now and not in the middle of the field..." It only took Itachi seconds to realise what she meant.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"No, you can't do that to her!" Itachi felt rage filling his bones, "She's working too hard for you to take her off duty... it's her life" He said, he never argued against his higher-ups but he saw how hard she was working, pushing herself over the limit time and time again. And for what? He wasn't going to let it happen.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"I'll be cutting all her training that involves ninjutsu. I'll move her career to be a nurse but that work will also be limited" Tsunade sighed placing the clipboard at the end of the bed. "I'm afraid there's nothing we can do" She muttered taking one last glance as Sakura before leaving.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>...</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Itachi watched from the shadows as Sakura balled her eyes out. He had never heard her howl so much before. Sure, she'd gotten pissed and screamed before but this time... He was sure the whole village could hear her. She screeched profanities at Tsunade and Shizune, saying they were just like Kakashi and didn't care about her. Tsunade just sighed and allowed Sakura to get it off her chest. After they left, Sakura looked at the drip in her arm before grabbing it and ripping it out. Itachi narrowed his eyes as she got up and locked the door using one of the chairs before curling back up on the bed. For all these hours, that's how she stayed. Sobbing her heart out. She only lifted her head when the sun started to set. She kicked the sheet off her body before walking over to the window. "It's not fair" She whispered resting her head and hands on the window. "They all hate me...I knew it" She muttered placing a hand on her neck. Itachi stepped over to her and grabbed her hand pulling it away. She gasped and looked up at him with wide eyes.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"You really think I'm going to let you do that, Sakura?" He asked with anger in his eyes. As her lip trembled, he realised how much he had hurt her. "I know I hurt you, Sakura... I should have told you, but I do not regret it... If I had told you then we wouldn't have gotten to know ea..." He trailed off as Sakura shook his hand off her wrist then flung herself at him. She wrapped her arms around him tightly sobbing into his chest. It may have only been five months but he already meant the world to her. He had believed in her when many didn't. "I won't let Tsunade take this from you" He whispered into her hair. That was the day Itachi Uchiha knew he wouldn't be able to live without Sakura Haruno.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>"You two have a mission" Tsunade informed them, eyes scanning the scroll one last time. Sakura glanced at Shisui who had the same confused look at her.</p><p> </p><p>"Where's Itachi? Shouldn't he be here as well?" Sakura asked with an arched eyebrow.</p><p> </p><p>"At the request of his father, Itachi has been taken off active duty," Tsunade informed them, "I have put someone else on your team temporarily, they'll be waiting at the gates" She added handing Sakura the mission scroll. Sakura sighed but nodded before turning to leave with Shisui.</p><p> </p><p>"Oh and Sakura?" Sakura looked over her shoulder at her teacher. "Rememorise every word and burn that scroll before you leave the village" Sakura narrowed her eyes slightly.</p><p> </p><p>"Yes, Milady..."</p><p> </p><p>Sakura finished looking over the scroll as Shisui guided her to the gate. She sighed; what kind of crap has Tsunade gotten her into this time? Sakura once going over the scroll one last time, burned it in her hand.</p><p> </p><p>"So who has she giv-Shisui!" Sakura groaned as she slammed into his back. "What's your problem now?" She muttered placing a hand on his arm and stepping out from behind him. Her hand squeezed his arm as her eyes landed on Kakashi and Naruto with their packs.</p><p> </p><p>"OH NO, I'M NOT DOING THIS" Sakura screeched attempting to turn around and leave. Shisui grabbed the back of her top and started to drag her to the others.</p><p> </p><p>"You're the only one who has read the scroll, Pinkie. You don't have a choice" Shisui informed her with a cheeky grin.</p><p> </p><p>"Sakura!" Naruto greeted her with a grin but kept his distance. After what Shisui told him... it's the least he could do.</p><p> </p><p>"Tsunade said we were getting one team member, why are you both here?" Sakura asked getting straight to the point. Naruto's shoulders slumped as he groaned quietly. She didn't even say hello.</p><p> </p><p>"Lady Hokage informed us that we were both to join on this mission," Kakashi spoke ignoring Naruto's quiet whines of rejection. "She also said that you would team captain, Sakura" Kakashi finished glancing at Shisui who had his eyebrows furrowed.</p><p> </p><p>"Man, I didn't think she'd take it seriously..." Shisui muttered. Sakura raised an eyebrow glancing at him. "Oh uh... well after that mission, I talked about having you as team captain on some missions, but she never commented on it." He explained with a shrug. Sakura sighed as she cast her eyes down at her disfigured fingers.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>The team of four stood over the destroyed battlefield. Naruto's mouth hit the ground, "What happened here!?" He screamed.</p><p> </p><p>"Unsure but it seems it was intense... but I don't think we'll have to worry about the people who did this coming back. It looks old" Kakashi assumed before looking at Shisui and Sakura. His eyebrows knotted together, Sakura's eyes couldn't lift her head to look at the destroyed area and Shisui's face was contorted into a look of pain and hatred.</p><p> </p><p>"The mission is to go to that hill," Sakura started, finally looking up at the field. Her face stayed blank but her eyes shone with sorrow. "There is a hideout in it. We are to investigate it" She finished. Shisui gasped and spun around as fast he nearly fell onto Sakura.</p><p> </p><p>"You're joking!?" He hissed. Sakura couldn't bear to look at him, she just shook her head.</p><p> </p><p>"This is the mission" She whispered.</p><p> </p><p>"So you're not concerned about the people who did this?" Naruto asked looking at Sakura with a frown. Sakura took a step forward getting ready to descend into the battlefield but stopped for a few seconds at Naruto's question. She contemplated not saying anything but knew he would find out sooner or later.</p><p> </p><p>"There is no need to worry... we've already returned" She said before descending into the battlefield with Shisui. The four walked along the field, decaying bodies still hung around. Some covered in grass and other debris, some out in the open with crows picking at their skins. Sakura glanced at the crows and felt the side of her lips twitch upwards before falling back into a flat line.</p><p> </p><p>"I don't understand, what happened here?" Naruto asked.</p><p> </p><p>"A long and tiring battle" Sakura muttered trying to ignore the memories that stabbed at her mind. Naruto glanced at her; her face was blank but held a sort of sorrow on it.</p><p> </p><p>Sakura sighed, "This is a lot of rubble," Shisui said rubbing his forehead. "Ya think someone really got into the hideout?" He asked looking over at Sakura who was squatting and picking up some of the smaller rubble.</p><p> </p><p>"Honestly... with the person we might be dealing with, yes. Kakashi, what do you think? Anything fishy?" She enquired looking up at him. He stared at her with his one visible eye blinking confusedly. She was asking for his opinion?</p><p> </p><p>"No. But it looks like the collapse was caused from inside-"</p><p> </p><p>"We're aware of that Kakashi. It wasn't collapsed last time but.." Sakura rubbed her forehead.</p><p> </p><p>"It was a long time ago, Sakura. It could have fallen by now. But I think we need to know who we're dealing with" Shisui responded raising an eyebrow at her. Her jaw tightened, the scroll ordered her to keep it a secret unless they ran into an enemy but this person was dangerous.</p><p> </p><p>"I am informing you of this because I believe if I do not then it will put not only the mission's success at risk but our lives. Information has been coming to Konoha that..." They all looked at her with narrowed eyes. "This hideout is a possible old hideout of Orochimaru, he might be inside as we speak. It's why I haven't just blown this to pieces yet" Sakura informed them. Shisui sighed again.</p><p> </p><p>"Great, just great" He muttered running a hand through his hair. Sakura stood up with a crack of her legs.</p><p> </p><p>"Time to find a way into this, yeah?" She asked and smiled as they all responded with a quiet but enthusiastic 'Yes!'</p><p> </p><p>"So.... how are we gonna do this?" Naruto asked.</p><p> </p><p>"I'll summon Lady Katsuyu and send her down. See if she can find any traps for us. If she gives us the all-clear, I'll start removing the rubble" Sakura instructed weaving her hand signs.</p><p> </p><p>Sakura heaved the last boulder out of the entrance into the hideout, the room leading to the next level was shut but accessible without any need to move more rubble. She flicked her hands as her team jumped down behind her. Kakashi and Naruto headed over to the door followed by Shisui. Sakura reached out grabbing Shisui's upper arm. He stopped and turned to face her, "Sakura?" He asked seeing the concern in her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>"We need to talk before we go in there..." She tried to keep her voice quiet and smooth but it wavered. Kakashi and Naruto stopped and turned to face them.</p><p> </p><p>"You remember what I taught you, correct?" She asked looking up at him, her face turned deadly serious. Shisui nodded. "Good because you may need it. And you will have to follow the rules I set" She reminded him.</p><p> </p><p>"No way, Sakura. I'm not doing that" He replied with a scoff.</p><p> </p><p>"This isn't a debate, Shisui. If I am in any way incapacitated and we are faced with an enemy, especially this enemy, you will do it" She ordered with a strong voice. "You will either kill me or leave me. No damned questions about it" She jabbed his chest.</p><p> </p><p>"This is ridiculous, Sakura..." Shisui growled quietly then sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll do it" He replied. He turned to go over to the others but stopped and walked back over to Sakura. He cupped her neck and hair making her look up at him. "You won't do it, Sakura. Ok? You're stronger now... and you won't do it because you must get back out. For Itachi" He spoke the last part as quiet as he could so only she could hear. She smiled sadly at him.</p><p> </p><p>"You have more faith then I do" She replied patting his hands before they both went over to Kakashi and Naruto.</p><p> </p><p>"I know you won't want to talk about it but since we're a team...we need to know what you're talking about" Kakashi reluctantly said. He didn't want to push her, it would only cause her to put more walls up.</p><p> </p><p>"Yes, I am aware" Sakura murmured back; she knew this was the reason Tsunade sent the four of them together. She was forcing her to get along with Naruto and Kakashi and had Shisui there to keep her safe and sane. Forcing her to reveal private and scarring things about herself and what she went through the past four years. "I will not go into details but I have a heart condition. It showed up around the end of the first year that you aband...left the village." Her word choice didn't go unnoticed by Kakashi. "It has only shown itself a few other times and we are not sure if it still affects me. Shisui is informed on what to do if I become incapacitated due to it and if we face an enemy... You all will either leave me or kill me, no discussion" She informed them with a stern look at Naruto.</p><p> </p><p>"But Sakura..." Her face didn't change from its stern look. "You forgot our te...team motto? Those who break the rules are scum but those who leave their friends behind are worse than scum" Naruto reminded her, not that he needed to. Sakura had spoken those words to herself every single day as she got out of bed, it's what hurt her the most. To team 7... Kakashi, Sasuke and Naruto... these words meant nothing when concerning her.</p><p> </p><p>"I am the team captain. It's a direct order" She reiterated before pushing past and opening the door.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Sakura shivered, feeling the deathly cold hovering on her body, she tried to wipe her face away and froze. Why was her hand all sticky? Suddenly the pain shot up through her right hand and into the rest of her body. Her eyes flew open as the memories came flooding back. Her head snapped to the left but found Itachi and Shisui gone.</em>
</p><p>
  <em><strong>Arms? They're not bound. </strong>Sakura nodded to herself before jumping off the metal table. She ran over to the drawers and pulled the first one open. Sakura smirked to herself, of course the idiots would keep their torturing equipment in the same room they torture in. She pulled out a small knife and threaded easily broken chakra strings around it and hiding it up her sleeve. Scanning the room, she found two possible exits. The door furthest from her was the most likely exit out the hideout so Sakura turned and headed to the room closest to her. She'd be damned if she was going to be on the same playing field as team 7, she wouldn't leave her comrades behind. Not now. Not ever.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>...</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Sakura came face to face with a two-way mirror. Her eyes widen, her left hand flew to cover her mouth as the tears slipped out of her eye. His screams were forever engrained into her mind as the knife slid across his abdomen. She couldn't let this go on any longer. Before she could think of what to do, the knife was cutting parts of his ear off. Sakura practically jumped at the door, kicking it down and running in. All three turned to face her in surprise. Rage boiled in her blood, she sprinted over to the man with the knife, someone different from her own torturer. She kicked him across the room before breaking the chakra strings and throwing the knife at him. Shisui's mouth opened a gap as she hit the man straight in the heart, killing him in seconds. Her attention turned back to Itachi who was breathing heavily but watching her carefully. She started to undo the rope that tied him down when something stabbed at her chest. She hissed in pain as her right hand gripped her shirt.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sakura! You need to get out!" Itachi ordered. He wanted her to leave them there? Was he insane!?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“No way in hell." She replied as she pushed through the pain. "I will not leave you." She growled finally untying the rope. Itachi dropped from his spot and watched as Sakura went to run over to Shisui. Their eyes widen as her eyes rolled into the back of her head.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"SAKURA!"</em>
</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>The hallways were dark and covered in dust and cobwebs. The team found the first four floors (not including the first level that was mostly destroyed from rubble) were housing. "How many people stayed here?" Naruto whispered glancing at Kakashi, who shrugged.</p><p>"Too many" Sakura replied as she came to the last floor's entrance. Her hand hovered over the handle as she held a breath. Kakashi looked at Shisui who was staring at the ground.</p><p>"Last floor, Sakura" Shisui muttered breaking her from her trance. She nodded and pushed the door open.</p><p>"The lights should be in here" She muttered stepping into the hallway and turning to the right. Fiddling with the box on the wall, she flicked a switch and the place lit up.</p><p>"Huh... funny how that still works" Shisui muttered getting a shrug in response.</p><p>"Who cares, last floor" Sakura replied as Naruto took the lead. "No, Naruto, don't!" Sakura hissed as he ran to the door at the end of the corridor. The three sprinted after him, all fumbling into the room and bumping into Naruto who was frozen.</p><p>"What the fuck happened here?" He whispered in disgust. Kakashi stood by his side almost mirroring his look of horror.</p><p>Sakura's eyes stared at the metal table still sitting in the same place. Thick blood was dried to it, most of the floor had also been covered in the sticky dried blood. The walls splattered with blood expect for two outlines. The place she lost her fingers and finally was able to escape. Sakura tore her eyes away.</p><p>"We need to check the last room" Sakura ordered starting to walk towards the door but stopped seeing Naruto pick up a jar. "Don't touch anything, Naruto!" She hissed but her words flew over his head. He held the jar just in front of his face inspecting it. He was curious about it and was peering hard to figure out what it was but when he finally noticed the nails, he wished he had listened to Sakura.</p><p>"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?" He screeched dropping it. The jar smashed and its contents slid over to Sakura and Shisui's feet. Kakashi lectured Naruto about being so loud as the other two stared at the jar's contents.</p><p>"Oh my-" Sakura started.</p><p>"They kept them" Shisui finished off her sentence. Kakashi and Naruto became silent and looked over at them.</p><p>"Kept what?" Kakashi inquired watching as Sakura kneeled grabbing hold of one.</p><p>"Ew! Sakura!" Shisui hissed grimacing at her. She stared at it, holding the middle of it. Naruto's eyes widen.</p><p>"Sakura...I'm so sorry... I didn't reali...oh, Kami" Naruto covered his mouth before the the vomit came out. The blood that covered this room, the fingers kept in a jar, it was all Sakura's.</p><p>"Guess that fucker liked souvenirs" Sakura muttered.</p><p>"Can you just put it down?" Shisui was freaking out more than Sakura herself.</p><p>"What's going on?" Kakashi asked blinking a couple of times. He was never the one out of the loop and it was driving him insane. Sakura tossed the finger to the side before standing up.</p><p>"Team Uchiha was held captive here for about two months, Kakashi. Those," Sakura pointed to the fingers. "Are mine." She finished holding her hand up.</p><p>"Wait..." Shisui grabbed her hand left inspecting it then scanning the room. His face became stark white. Sakura's eyes flew open as she spun around to also inspect the room.</p><p>"You're correct, Shisui... someone's here" She responded pulling out a kunai.</p><p>"Woah, how'd you get that?" Naruto asked furrowing his eyebrows at them.</p><p>"I killed at least four people in this room when we escaped, their bodies are gone. And it was the same day my left finger were cut off... They were also in the jar" Sakura explained their thinking. Kakashi sighed as Naruto just stared at them.</p><p>"It means someone had to be here to remove the bodies" Kakashi muttered. Abruptly out of the silence came a loud crash. Sakura was the first to slam the door open and sprint into the hallway with the two-way mirror. Sakura slammed the next door open and sprinted in, blood also covered it. But this hit her harder than her own blood. Her jaw tightened with her fist as her eyes landed on the man cowering in the corner.</p><p>"Well, well. Look at what the cat dragged in" Shisui smirked while Sakura spun her kunai around her finger mirroring his smirk. The man looked up at them in terror, trembling at the sight of the two.</p><p>"Wh...what are you-you tw-two doing here?" He squeaked. Sakura laughed, her hips swaying as she walked over towards him.</p><p>"Not so cocky now, are we?" She asked gripping the collar of his dirty blood-stained lab coat and jerking him up into the air.</p><p>"Ple-please...if you're just going to kill me... do it already" He whimpered out. Sakura looked at Shisui whose fist was trembling.</p><p>"No, I don't think I will" Sakura replied before slamming his head against the wall then dropping him to the floor. "I'll summon Lady Katsuyu and have her take him back to the village for us. Kakashi, Naruto, you two go up a floor and search for anything important in the files" Sakura ordered. "Then we'll get out and destroy this place for good."</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Sakura sat in the chair with her legs crossed a clipboard resting on her lap, the back of it facing the wall to her left. Her left hand resting on the table while she jotted notes down on the clipboard with her right. On the other side of the mirror stood Ibiki, The 5th Hokage, Sakura's mission team and unknown to her Itachi and Sasuke. The man in front of her had been identified as a missing ninja from Suna, Seiji Naito. His file said he worked under Lady Chiyo and Sasori of the red sand, it was unknown why he was at this hideout in the land of fire or how he was connected to Orochimaru but Sakura planned to figure it out.</p><p>"Yo-You're just gonna sit there? In...silence?" He asked watching as she wrote. She stopped and placed the pen down before looking at him. Her face blank as she blinked.</p><p>"Tell me, Seiji. Have you heard of a man by the name of Orochimaru?" Sakura asked. He narrowed his eyes slightly at her as she looked back down at her clipboard.</p><p>
  <em> <strong>Noted: subject was confused at the mention of Oro.</strong> </em>
</p><p>"Of course, everyone knows him. He was one of the le-"</p><p>"A simple yes or no will suffice," Sakura interjected scribbling on the clipboard. "Have you ever met him before?" She asked.</p><p>
  <em> <strong>Noted: the subject is taking a long time to answer. Sakura side glanced at him. The subject is clearly confused.</strong> </em>
</p><p>"Shut your mouth before you catch flies" She commented receiving a bash on the two-way mirror. "Apologise, Seiji. Please answer the question" She added but the man just stared at her. She was being incredibly nice to him; she should have been cutting him up into pieces. He mutilated her, nearly murdered her. A shiver ran through his body, no, no that wasn't him.</p><p>"Uh, no. I'm pretty sure I've never met him before" Seiji replied. Sakura was writing then froze and turned her head to look at him, eyes narrowed like a snake.</p><p>"Never?"</p><p>"Never." Sakura continued her note.<strong><em> The subject seems to be telling the truth, he has not met Oro. To his knowledge. </em></strong>"Are you aware of the possibility that the hideout is linked to Orochimaru?"</p><p>"No."</p><p>"Has anyone you worked with ever spoken about him?"</p><p>"Not to me."</p><p>
  <strong> <em>Scribble, scribble.</em> </strong>
</p><p>"Do you have any reason to believe that your boss was in contact with Orochimaru?"</p><p>"No,"<strong><em> Scribble.</em> </strong>"...I did that, didn't I?" .<strong><em>..slow scribble...</em></strong> "Saku-"</p><p>"Do you believe that your boss was working for Orochimaru or any of his affiliates?" Seiji narrowed his eyes.</p><p>"No."</p><p><strong><em>Scribble. Page flip. Scribble.</em></strong> Sakura looked back at him, almost as if she was bored.</p><p>"I hope you're aware that if you're caught lying. My partner, no not one of those two, will come in here and he will not only break every single bone in your body... but he will slowly skin you alive" Sakura threatened. Seiji stared right into her eyes.</p><p>"I am not lying" He replied. Sakura nodded and looked back at her clipboard.</p><p>"If your boss was not working with Orochimaru... who was he working for?"</p><p>"I'm not sure"</p><p>"Excuse me?" Sakura's tone was pissed. She already said, yes or no. Sakura flipped the page.</p><p>"I know he was working for someone but I am unsure of who. It's blank..." Seiji flinched as Sakura finished her scribble then stood up. She ripped the paper off the clipboard, leaving the clipboard on her seat, and walking over to the two-way mirror. She slammed the paper against it for those behind it to read. After there were two knocks on the mirror, she scrunched the paper up and burned it in her hand. She placed the clipboard (paperwork facedown) on the table. Grabbing the back of her chair, she took it over to Seiji and placed it down backwards.</p><p>"What the hell is she doing?" Shisui muttered rubbing his forehead. The seven of them watched Sakura sit on the chair, her arms resting on it back staring at Seiji.</p><p>"You shouldn't question her. She's far from done" Ibiki muttered with his usual stoic expression caked over his whole body. Shisui and Itachi froze in anticipation as Sakura held her right hand up for Seiji to look at.</p><p>"You asked if you did that to me. Why are you asking?" The man's nervous demeanour suddenly changed into remorse.</p><p>"I...I don't know..." He muttered back.</p><p>"You didn't just cut them off, you kept them in a jar. Do you remember that?" She enquired as he cast his eyes to his hands. A shameful nod finally came from him.</p><p>"Why didn't you escape? You could have gotten out..." He asked, head still hung low. Sakura looked back at the mirror.</p><p>"You're right. I could have escaped without anyone's knowledge but then I would have deserted my team... those two mean everything to me. I would die before I let anyone touch a hair on their heads."</p><p>"Does it...do you...relive it?" His voice was a whisper. Sakura's jaw tightened.</p><p>"Every single night I wake up seeing your face hovering about me. Some mornings I wake up to vomit in my throat or having a panic attack about which part of my body I'll lose next. It haunts me every time I touch something and I'm reminded about my disfigurement" Sakura sighed quietly before standing up and returning the chair to its normal spot. She flipped the clipboard over, writing some more notes. She clicked the pen and attached it to the clipboard before tucking it under her arm.</p><p>"Do you know how your boss died?" She asked looking at him with childlike curiosity. Seiji lifted his head a fraction to look at her.</p><p>"No" His whole body became numb as an evil grin echoed across her face. Itachi and Shisui shut their eyes even though they were unable to see her face due to her back being turned to them.</p><p>"I ripped his heart out" She murmured before turning her back to him and walking towards the door. After a few steps, Sakura stuttered to a stop. A shaken hand was placed on her heart, tears slipped down her cheeks.</p><p>"What is happening?" Sasuke spoke for the first time, looking over at the others. Tsunade was refusing to look up, Kakashi and Naruto stared with wide eyes realising what was happening, Ibiki watched with a tight jaw but still held his emotionless expression. Sasuke's eyes flew to Shisui, he was holding Itachi's arm tightly who gave him a murderous look.</p><p>"Remember what she wrote" Shisui spoke refusing to let go of Itachi.</p><p>"I don't care, she'll die!" He yelled watching Sakura's body collapse to the floor.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong> <em>Get me Inoichi Yamanaka. And when it happens, do not come and help me. No matter what.</em> </strong>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Ino stared at her in shock, disbelief and almost disgust. How could she think this was appropriate!? "This is disgusting!" Ino screamed without thinking. She wanted to take it back immediately as she watched her best friend's face fall, her shoulders slump and tears stung her eyes. "Oh, no... Sakura...I..." It was too late; she couldn't keep her big mouth shut. Sakura's eyes fell to her hands as she fiddled with them.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sorry I bothered you, Ino..." Sakura muttered retreating into the shell she thought she didn't need anymore. Since Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi left her behind at the young age of fourteen, she had become a stronger person in more ways than brute strength. She was confident. But then this happened, at the age of 16, nearly 17, she felt herself start to crawl back into that shell. Ino was right, how could she do that?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sakura! I'm sorry... it's not disgusting but...you do see what you're doing, right?" Ino asked as the pinkette started to leave the shop.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"What I'm doing?" Sakura question stopping and looking over her shoulder at Ino.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You're just trying to replace Sasuke with his older brother."</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>...</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Ino's eyes widen. The first thing she noticed was two pink blobs running towards the gate. The second thing she noticed was the two black blobs on the back of the pink. The last thing she was able to understand was that Sakura and Itachi were collapsed at her feet while Shisui fell to the ground in a heap of smoke. She was only here with her team to pick up some paperwork from Genma who was stationed at the gate. "Sakura!?" Shikamaru yelled running over to Ino's side. Sakura's head slowly turned until she saw Itachi. The four watched in shock as Sakura stumbled to get onto her knees and crawl to Itachi. She grabbed his left arm and pulled him over onto his back, her body trembling the whole time. She was too weak to be doing this. Shikamaru was the first to notice the black marks that covered her whole body, he'd never seen anything like it before.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Ino! You need to check on Shisui's condition," Sakura ordered peering over her shoulder at Shisui. "He used a lot of chakra and he's been practically starved and dehydrated for two months" She informed Ino. Ino nodded and did as she was told. "Genma, you're the fastest, get to Tsunade and inform her that we are all alive" Genma nodded and vanished.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"That's Lady Hokage's mark..." Choji muttered. Shikamaru looked closer at Sakura's appearance and his jaw tightened.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Who did this?" He asked. His teammates' heads shot to look at him. Sakura kept her focus on healing Itachi's stomach wound.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"He's dead if that is what you're worried about" Sakura replied.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"That's not... I'm worried about your <strong>dying</strong> team, Sakura" A low growl escaped Sakura's throat.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Nobody is dying!" She barked before the marks started to retreat up her body. Choji's eyes widen as the marks vanished into the diamond that shone on Sakura's forehead before she collapsed onto Itachi's stomach. Her eyes fluttering shut.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Ino watched in tears, still with her hands pressed to Shisui's neck. Itachi was only half-conscious but he sat up, wrapping an arm around Sakura and holding her close. "You don't have to," <strong>cough,</strong> "worry about them. Sakura's already restarted his heart. She's just exhausted." Shisui spoke quietly.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Shut it, you shouldn't be talking" Ino ordered but he just laughed.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Don't worry about me, Sakura took the brunt of everything. So of course, Itachi was right behind her to make sure she was ok" Shisui rolled his eyes before coughing again. Ino glanced at him before focusing her eyes back on Itachi and Sakura. Itachi was fully sitting up now, Sakura resting on his chest with a peaceful look on her face. Maybe Ino was wrong... maybe Sakura truly did love him. So much she would go to the trouble of restarti- "She restarted his heart? We're meant to stop treatment once the heart..." Ino's head dropped in shame. Sakura did love him...</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"She tried to infuse her chakra with his heart, but it wasn't working so she cut him open and pumped his heart until he was alive again" Shisui explained before smiling up at her. "Don't kick yourself over it, we all thought the same thing."</em>
</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>"You're letting her die!! Let go of me, Sasuke!!" Ino screamed as Sasuke held her back by her waist. Tears poured down her face as she watched Sakura wither in pain. She was just in the next room! She could save her!</p><p>"We can't help-" Itachi started. Ino's head snapped to the left and she stared at him with fiery eyes.</p><p>"You!!" She growled, fuming from the bones. Accusation clear in her tone. "You're just going to let her die!?!? I THOUGHT YOU LOVED HER!" Ino's voice got louder and louder with each word. The whole room froze, Sasuke's arms tensed while loosening around Ino's waist. Itachi loved Sakura? Ibiki mentally thanked Kami that the integration room had been soundproofed with seals.</p><p>Before anyone could make a comment, Sakura's screams were silenced. Ino's head flung to the mirror expecting her best friend to be dead but that's not what she found. Seiji had Sakura sitting up and leaning against the table leg. One hand on her back and the other hovering over her chest. He was a gentleman after all. Sakura watching him with closed eyes. Both his hands were glowing green, relief washed over Ino.</p><p>"You did this on purpose" Sakura smirked slightly at Seiji's comment.</p><p>"Pity you don't have any proof" She murmured with a quiet grunt.</p><p>"It was on that note you wrote, wasn't it?" He asked glancing at her.</p><p>"No. I had them call in another interrogator. You'll meet him soon" Sakura replied. She was correct in her assumption and if she hadn't been, she'd be dead. Once he healed her, he stood up and returned to his seat. Sakura stood up picking her clipboard up. She held onto the table before walking over to the door. Her hand touched the handle when he spoke his last words to her.</p><p>"I'm sorry for everything I did to you, Sakura...you truly are one of the purest people I've ever met" Sakura smiled slightly and glanced over her shoulder at him.</p><p>"Thank you for being honest, Seiji... and I'll make sure to deal with whoever put that on you" The two nodded at each other before Sakura walked out.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>"You think he's being controlled?" Inoichi raised his eyebrows at Sakura as she rubbed her neck. Inoichi was standing next to Tsunade and Shizune while Shisui and Itachi lent against the wall to their right. Team 7 stood on the left watching Ino who was planted next to Sakura, fussing over the fact she would do that to herself. Sakura unclipped her top and pulled it over her shoulders. Itachi placed his face into his hand with a soft mutter of 'There she goes again.' Shisui rolled his eyes but didn't look away, it's nothing he hadn't seen before. Sasuke's cheeks burnt bright at Naruto's screams for Sakura to cover herself. Kakashi couldn't help but stare, Naruto of course noticed and started to scream at his pervy sensei until he saw the look on Kakashi's face. Shame, heartbreak, regret. Naruto looked back over at Sakura who now stood in her pants and bra. His screams were silenced as his face softened.</p><p>Inoichi stared into the young girl's eyes. He had heard about all the scars Sakura bore for the sake of keeping the two Uchihas safe from harm. "Do you think that man could have done this to me?" Sakura's voice was deadly quiet. She didn't care about all the eyes on her, it no longer bothered her. Not after her second official ANBU mission with Itachi, Shisui and Ino. Inoichi finally took in her wounds. Her whole upper body was covered in scars, her arms he knew were from training, but her abdomen was horrific. The image of these being on Ino flashed in his mind and he looked away with a tight jaw.</p><p>"No. I do not believe that he did that" He finally replied in a quiet voice. Naruto watched in sorrow as Sakura put her top back on. The whole time her face was blank, not a single emotion could be found. It frightened him. What had happened to his Sakura?</p><p>"I want his memory searched. Find out what's really going on" With that Sakura left the room without another word.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>"Can I speak to you?" Sasuke spoke as he sat down, dangling his feet off the edge of the wall. Sakura glanced at him.</p><p>"You're going to speak whether I say yes or no" She muttered. Sasuke nodded his head in response. "Fine, go" She sighed looking ahead.</p><p>"It seems you and Itachi got close while we were away" He commented. Sakura rolled her eyes at him.</p><p>"And you still have a stick so far up your ass, you can't sit down. What of it?" Sakura shot back. Sasuke sneered but didn't bite.</p><p>"I want to ask you about his sharingan. When did he...advanced?" Sasuke asked looking at her noting that her jaw tightened.</p><p>"Why don't you ask him? I'm not his fucking keeper" Sakura snapped back already growing impatient of how he talked to her.</p><p>"Because I need to figure out an answer to a problem. And I doubt he will tell me" Sakura rolled her eyes at his vagueness.</p><p>"Look I don't know too much about your sharingan, I don't understand why it happened but I do know what happened... and maybe he doesn't want you to know for a reason. What is this stupid problem anyway?" Sakura asked finally looking turning her head to look at him.</p><p>"Doesn't matter right now. Tell me how it happened" He ordered.</p><p>"It was our first ANBU mission; Itachi, Shisui and me. It was a simple mission on the surface. We found a whole gang of missing-nin and wanna be shinobi working together and got captured," Sasuke nodded listening carefully. Something must have happened to Shisui to activate it. "We spent two months as prisoners in that hideout... starved...dehydrated for most of it..." Sakura fiddled with her disfigured hands. "Tortured." Sasuke's whole body froze up, he didn't realise it was two months they spent there. "It was the day we escaped, during the fight with the boss. He was the last one standing" Sakura explained.</p><p>"Did something happen to Shisui?" Sasuke asked. Sakura lifted her legs up and turned her whole body to face him.</p><p>"What does this have to do with Itachi's sharingan?" She pressed. "I won't say until you tell me." Sasuke sighed and looked away from her.</p><p>"It's something Ino said, it's bothering me. And if what she said was true, it explains Itachi getting the mangekyo sharingan."</p><p>Sakura arched an eyebrow but assumed after a minute of silence he wasn't going to speak.</p><p>"I took a rock to the forehead and everyone thought I was dead" Sakura suddenly said. Sasuke's head flung back towards her with owl eyes. "What of it?" She asked again.</p><p>"Ino said, when you were having a heart attack, that she thought Itachi loved you..." Sakura's heart started to pound, her right hand trembled as the world started to crumble onto her. Itachi loved her?</p><p>"Woah! Hold on! That correlates to this... mangekyo sharingan, how!?" Sakura hissed, he had to be playing a prank on her.</p><p>"An Uchiha can only obtain it by watching someone close to them die" Sasuke whispered getting up to leave. Before he could finish standing, Sakura grabbed a fist full of his shirt and yanked his face towards her, eyes burning bright.</p><p>"Get that ridiculous thought of your head before I beat it out. Itachi doesn't love me. Nor do I love or feel any affection like that towards him. Do you get that!?" Sakura growled as her grip tightened. Sasuke's heart hammered, she was terrifying. When did she get so scary!? He nodded quickly.</p><p>"Completely" <em>Bullshit. It's clear in her eyes, there's something there.</em> Sakura let go of his shirt allowing him to stand up and leave. Once he was out of Sakura's view, she pulled her knees to her chest. A distant look cast over her face as she thoughts about what she just said.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"You know nothing has to change, right?" Itachi said placing a gentle hand on her arm. Sakura looked at him raising an eyebrow. "You have that look on your face again" He muttered. She chuckled quietly before sighing.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You say that but what's going to happen when they come back? I mean...I told you how Ino reacted..." Sakura murmured.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You think we're going to stop being friends when Sasuke returns? My little brother doesn't run my life." He placed a hand on her chin and gently turned her head so she'd look at him. "You're stuck with me now, Sakura."</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Itachi frowned to himself watching from across the road, he felt his anger start when Sakura grabbed Sasuke's shirt.</p><p>'Nor do I love or feel any affection like that towards him.' Her words cut deep. Did she truly feel that way?</p><p>"You just gonna stand here and stare at her? Or are you gonna comfort her?" Ino asked. Itachi looked to his left and saw her standing there, tilted to her right with her arms crossed.</p><p>"You heard her; my affection is not returned" Itachi replied. Ino rolled her eyes.</p><p>"She doesn't mean it. Ever since Sasuke returned, you've been avoiding her," She rolled her eyes again. "You think we haven't noticed?"</p><p>"There's nothing to notice."</p><p>"Oh my... You weren't on that mission, why?" Ino asked. Itachi's jaw tightened as his eyes wandered back over to Sakura.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Fugaku raised an eyebrow at his eldest son who was currently packing weapons. "And you are doing?" He asked.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sakura and Shisui are on a mission, I'm joining them" Itachi replied not bothering to look away from his packing.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You will not. You've been removed from active duty for a month" His father informed him. Itachi dropped his bag; scrolls and weapons scattered over the floor. He faced his father with burning eyes.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"What does that mean?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I had Lady Hokage remove you for a month. So you can spend time with your family. It's not permanent, even though it should be. I did tell you to stay away from that Haruno girl" His father informed him.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>It was the first day Itachi nearly attacked his own father. How could he do that? Itachi sighed, "I didn't have a choice. My father had me taken off missions so I could spend time with the family" He informed Ino, still watching Sakura who was fiddling with her hair.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Itachi laid the folder down on the table. "I want to reopen the Har..." Itachi trailed off with narrowed eyes. His father sighed putting his tea down and pushing the folder back to his eldest son.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You are a shinobi and are not a part of the police force, Itachi" Fugaku responded ignoring the anger burning in Itachi's eyes.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You're the head of the force, I want to reopen it" Itachi restated getting irritated as his father sighed.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I will not reopen the Haruno murder case. That is the end of this conversation."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Fine, I'll figure it out myself then" Itachi picked the folder up and turned to leave.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"If you do this, Itachi. You won't like what you find" He informed his son. Itachi stalled in his tracks and looked over his shoulder as his father's words echoed in his mind.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>'I don't want you around that Haruno girl. Her family may seem like it's a normal civilian family but something was very wrong in that household, Itachi'</em>
</p><p>
  <em>What happened? Why was Fugaku so adamant on him staying away from Sakura? Itachi was sure it was because she was Sasuke's teammate but then he spoke those words... with that glint in his eyes. There was something Itachi didn't know.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"If you had a proper look at that case file, you'd already know who the murderer was" Fugaku picked his cup back up sipping from it. It wasn't that he had anything against the girl, but she came from a civilian family. A monstrous civilian family with a history of horrific deaths and illnesses. Itachi's hand balled up scrunching the file up. Fugaku's eye twitched as he pressed his lips together, Itachi's lucky they had other copies.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You told me that you believed her" He growled quietly, body trembling in anger. Fugaku narrowed his eyes from over his cup.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"So you didn't look at it properly," He sighed before taking another sip of his tea. "Everyone on that case decided on the same thing. We decided to keep it as a cold case after figuring out who the murderer was. We didn't want to cause the poor girl any more heartbreak" He spoke the last bit as quietly as possible, but it didn't escape Itachi. Itachi looked down at the scrunched-up file and felt his jaw tightened. Of course, he came up with the same answer but ruled it out after hearing how Sakura talked about them.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Its not...it isn't possible" Itachi whispered. Fugaku watched in shock as his son's anger was replaced with sadness. He must have strong feelings for this girl. Fugaku sighed.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I'm afraid so. Kizashi Haruno committed a murder-suicide. We believe if Sakura hadn't left that afternoon, she would have also been slaughtered by her father."</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Sakura's fingers dug into the sticky, cold skin that used to warm her. Her chin rested on the top of her mother's head which was resting in her chest. Sakura could only blame herself for this. All the lessons at the academy, learning to be a ninja, all for naught. She couldn't even protect those most precious to her. Instead, she screeched at them, "I hate you! I hate you both! You're ruining my life!" and ran out leaving them in that house filled with those hurtful words.</em>
</p><p> </p><p><em>"I'm sorry! I'M SORRY!" Her crackling sobs echoed around the empty house. She had no doubt the police force would be here soon, after the Earth shattering scream she let out upon slipping on her parents' blood and opening her eyes to find their blank eyes staring into her soul. She may have not used the knife that killed them, but she wasn't there, she was responsible for this. Sakura pulled her mother's decaying body closer as she heard footsteps and voices echoing around the house. Sakura's eyes drifted up as the door, they were met with a stone-cold face and horrified onyx eyes</em>.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Sakura came face to face with those same eyes as she opened her front door. "Lord Fugaku...I didn't expect you to..." Sakura spoke quietly glancing to his right. Shisui stood there with his head dipped low. She looked back at the head of the Uchiha clan, tears brimming her eyes. "Come on inside" She stepped aside.</p><p>"Thank you, Miss Haruno" Fugaku spoke before entering with Shisui. She took them to the living room, gesturing for them to take a seat while she leant against the kitchen bench. "I assume you know why we're here... we have an update on your parents' case."</p><p>"I thought it was a cold case..." Sakura interjected looking at him.</p><p>"Yes well, we had...someone with an interest in solving it" Fugaku replied. Itachi had convinced him that it was hurting her more not knowing. Sakura's face dropped as she thought about Itachi.</p><p>"So you decided to finally make it official?" She asked. Shisui's head flung up with furrowed eyebrows. Sakura sighed walking over to one of the cupboards and opened a drawer. Fugaku watched with narrowed eyes as she pulled out a scroll and handed to him.</p><p>"I found this.... a couple of years ago..." She muttered watching him read the first couple lines. He quickly stopped and folded the scroll up and handed back to Sakura.</p><p>"You didn't inform us" He merely replied.</p><p>"You're a shinobi, I knew you already figured it out" She shrugged, "I didn't want to tarnish his memory... not in that way" A tear slipped down her cheek returning the scroll rightful place.</p><p>"We'll let ourselves out" Shisui spoke stepping forward from his spot. The two Uchiha's started to leave but Fugkau stopped at the doorway.</p><p>"Miss Haruno, how do you feel about my son?" Fugaku asked turning around to face her. She lifted her head up, pulling her hair out of her face.</p><p>"It depends on which son you're talking about. I'm familiar with both Sasuke and Itachi" She replied.</p><p>"You have gotten very close to Itachi in the past four years. So much so that he asked the Hokage to place you on his team as the medic" Fugaku commented ignoring her question. Sakura's eyes nearly popped out of her head as Shisui groaned with slumped shoulders and head drop.</p><p>"She didn't know that, Uncle..." Shisui muttered, his uncle focused on Sakura's reaction deciding to ignore Shisui. Sakura quickly composed herself and shrugged.</p><p>"Itachi was there for me when a lot of people weren't. Including your youngest son, who instead of being the teammate he should have been, ditched me"</p><p>"It's not a shinobi's job to help another become stronger."</p><p>"It's not my job to feel worthless to validate some snotty-nosed little boy who thinks he's better than everyone else because he's got some fancy eyes and last name." Shisui's mouth slammed against the floor as he watched the two bicker.</p><p>"Validate him?" Fugaku didn't comment on the insult to the Uchiha name, for now.</p><p>"Uchiha or not, Sasuke is not better than anyone else. He can barely work in a team because all he cares about is showing off. Me being left behind in the dirt validates him. It shows he'll always have someone to gloat over, well I'm over that. I'm not the one who had to leave the village to get stronger because of," Sakura started to smirk as she straightened her back from it's slumped state. She was enjoying this too much. "Distractions. I'm pretty sure that's what Kakashi said to Lady Tsunade."</p><p>"Do you love Itachi?" Sakura was taken back by the question, almost stumbling in her spot. Shisui's eyes wandered from his uncle to Sakura waiting for an answer, though he could easily answer for him.</p><p>"Kami, can you be anymore blunt about things?" She murmured rubbing her forehead. Fugaku stood there waiting patiently for her answer but narrowed his eyes as she gained a distance stare.</p><p>"Define love" She replied after a few silent seconds, her eyes focusing back on him. "But I think you know how I feel."</p><p>"My son is lucky to have such a brave and headstrong woman in his life and on his team" Fugaku and Shisui left without another word but not before hearing Sakura whisper a soft 'You're wrong, I'm the lucky one.'</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Blood splashed against the wall. Searing pain in her right hand. An explosion of energy rippling out through her forehead. She screamed in pain hurling herself forward onto the wooden floor. Both hands planted against the floor, blood starting to seep out of the boards and pool around her hands and knees.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"No! Please!" She screeched, out of the blood came hands gripping her wrists and trying to pull her down. "Let! Let me go!" Trying with all her might, she failed and was pulled inches away from the pool of blood. Everything became silent as she stared into the murky depth. A scroll emerged from the blood, rolling open for her to read.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>A tear slipped down her chin and fell onto the scroll before it disappeared back into the blood. The scroll was replaced by a third hand, slowly it bubbled out and reached around her throat. Before she could react, the hand squeezed before pulling her head down. The floor had been completely transformed into blood. She kicked and screamed trying to find a way out, but it was useless. She started to choke as she inhaled the blood.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Shaking her head, she gripped the hands holding her wrists and used them as leverage to yank her head up. Gasping for air she found herself staring at the door one again. She couldn't stop herself from opening the door and stepping inside. Forced by an invisible will to watch as her father held her mother's body close to him at the foot of the bed. She tried to run into the room, to stop him but she was held back as the knife in his hand sliced her mother's throat open. A silent scream escaped from her body as she watched her mother's body drop to the floor, blood pooling out onto the floor. Her eyes pulled away from her mother to her father while the knife pierced his heart. His body collapsed and landing next to his wife's body.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>It was always the same, she watched them die before being pulled down into the blood to drown. How long had this been going on? How many times had she watched them die? This time she didn't fight, what was the point? Just to watch her parents die again? As she let her lungs be suffocated by blood, she smiled to herself. Maybe this would end it all. But when she opened her eyes, she came face to face with the door. Anger boiled over; this was it! She slammed the door open and stormed in.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I've had enough of this bullshi..." Eyes widen as her feet slid on the floor. Her behind struck the floor as the tears started to fall. She thought she'd be prepared for anything; she didn't expect to find three bodies each lying on their own metal operation table.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>After stumbling to get up, she walked over to the first body. Fingers mutilated, scars covering its chest and neck while a small diamond shape had been cut out of its forehead. She was staring right back into the cold lifeless eyes of herself. The second body had its eyes removed, chunks of it removed for study. She noted even its curly hair had been hacked to pieces. It was the last body to shook her to the core. She never thought she'd see those eyes...empty. He was always thinking and now... there was nothing. She reached forward with her right hand, eyes skimming over the cuts and gashes over his body. Her hand ran through his hair that sat over his right shoulder.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Why...why..." She started to sob, head collapsing onto his chest as her body crashed into the metal table. "Why can't I be strong enough!? Why can't I protect the ones I love!?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You love me?" His voice was as silky as normal, her head shot up. There was no breathing or heartbeat. How could he be speaki... his eyes were still lifeless.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I...I....ho-how....Ita-" Her body froze as his hand wrapped around her neck gripping tightly. Spluttering on air, she grabbed his wrist struggling to pull his hand away.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Pathetic. Nobody could love a weak failure like yourself, Sakura." </em>
</p><p>
  <em>“It will always come to this. You can’t protect anyone,” Her bubbling eyes pulled upwards and found her corpse was now standing in front of her. “You will be just like your father. You will kill those who mean the most to you.” Still gasping, her eyes moved to watch the corpse step back and reveal a never ending row of bodies.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>She flung herself forward scratching as her wrist and neck. She froze finding herself on the couch, a sticky substance covered both hands and the cushion she was using as a pillow. Sitting up, she couldn't make out what it was because of the darkness. It was obviously late. Standing up and stumbling over to the light switch, she tensed. Blood covered the switch; eyes flew to her hands and then the couch. She had scratched her neck and wrist so much they were bleeding.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Sakura came to a standstill as she saw Naruto leaning on the railing overlooking the village. "Oh...uh sorry, I didn't expect anyone to be here" She muttered getting his attention. He smiled softly at him.</p><p>"Hi, Sakura...I just needed some alone time" Naruto shrugged, "You can stay if you want" He added gesturing to the spot next to him. Sakura bit her bottom lip.</p><p>"You just said you needed some alone time..."</p><p>"We don't have to talk... and your company would be nice" He responded. Her lips turned upwards as she walked over to him and leant against the railing. Naruto smiled at her before looking back out at the village. "Do you come here often?"</p><p>"Sounds like some stupid pickup line you'd get from Jiraiya," Sakura laughed. "But yes... I do.”</p><p>The two stood in silence for ten minutes, just admiring the village and enjoying their friend's company. Naruto glanced at Sakura; her eyes distant but full of thoughts. She had grown up since the last time he saw her. Not just in her looks but mentally and it showed. By now, she'd have screamed at him. She definitely would have hit him by now. He watched as she sighed and ran a hand through her hair wrapping it over her shoulder. "Never thought I'd see you with long hair again" He commented with a chuckle. Sakura looked at him and chuckled.</p><p>"Oh, I truly did just forget to cut it..." She mumbled. Naruto's smile inched into a frown with every word. "I was so focused on training and getting stronger that I never noticed how long it got" She shrugged. Did she feel the need to explain simple hair growth? Or was it...</p><p>"Sakura, you don't have to... I don't think you just grew it out for Sasuke. Seriously" Naruto reassured her with a hand on her shoulder. Sakura smiled a little. "So what brings you up here? I expected you to leave when you saw me..." Naruto trailed off. Sakura sighed looking back at the village.</p><p>"I come here when I need some alone time...I know what it's like to be alone, Naruto" Sakura explained with a shrug. Naruto chuckled sadly to himself.</p><p>"I doubt you do... with your family and all..." He commented quietly looking down at the railing. Sakura's body tensed, her nightmare bouncing back into her mind.</p><p>"Oh no...trust me, I do" She responded with a quiet sigh. Naruto narrowed his eyes at her.</p><p>"Sakura..." He reached over and placing a hand on hers. "When did they die?" He questioned. She sighed deeply.</p><p>"I think you know when it happened, Naruto" She replied looking away from him. His face dropped as his hand gripped hers tighter.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Naruto was tapping his foot as he watched the time tick by. Sakura was late. Sakura was never late. She once scolded him so hard that he wasn't late for six months. He thought maybe she had just slept in but when the time ticked around to lunch, he thought he'd ask Iruka. While the other students went to lunch, Naruto walked up to academy sensei.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Iruka-sensei? Did Sakura call in sick or something? She's not one to miss class..." He asked shyly with a rub of his arm. Iruka frowned, he didn't notice Sakura was missing.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"No, she didn't... I'm sure she has a good reason. I wouldn't worry too much"</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>...</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Iruka was wrong to not worry. It was two weeks until Sakura showed up in class like nothing had happened. Expect something clearly was wrong. She walked in 5 minutes before class started ignoring the stares of her classmates. Ino was the first to make a comment about her beating Sakura to sit next to Sasuke, Sakura looked at the row they were sitting in and blinked a few times.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Oh well, congrats?" She asked more than stated. With a shake of her head, she went to the nearest vacant seat. Next to Shikamaru. She leant back in her seat with crossed arms and eyes shut tightly. The whole class became silent watching Sakura in confusion. No screaming? No insults? Naruto narrowed his eyes at the pinkette who sat above him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Hey, Sakura!" Sakura opened one eye and looked down at him. "Wanna hang out at lunch!?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sure, whatever" She replied with a shrug.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>"It was the first time you actually paid attention to me... besides punching me" Naruto muttered. Sakura burst out laughing.</p><p>"Ah yes. I remember that lunch date."</p><p>"DATE!? I didn't know it was a date!!"</p><p>"Shut up, you'll wake up the whole village!" Sakura couldn't help but laugh at his shenanigans.</p><p>"Sakura..." The mood darkened as Naruto's smile vanished from his face. Sakura's laugh stopped as she watched him. "I..." He looked down at the village with a deep sigh. Sakura bit her bottom lip.</p><p>"You know...I was so excited for our annual survival exercise. I had been training with Team Gai for weeks to improve... I was going to show you guys who much I had improved" Sakura muttered propping herself up onto the railing, her feet dangling over the viewing platform "I waited for hours... only to learn that you left the day before" Sakura stared down at her knees, her knuckles white from gripping onto the railing.</p><p>"I never... I didn't realise how much we were hurting you, Sakura" Naruto spoke softly watching a small tear slip down Sakura's cheek.</p><p>"Of course you didn't. You only cared about beating Sasuke... just like Sasuke only thought about beating you," Sakura muttered. Naruto's heart started to ache going through his memories. She was right, that was all he focused on. "And Kakashi sure didn't give two shits about being my teacher... So I decided I'd find my own way to becoming my strongest" Sakura's face broke out in a sad grin.</p><p>"...Sakura..."</p><p>"I don't want pity, Naruto. I don't need it either. What I need now is respect" Sakura informed him, tilting her head to look at him.</p><p>"So... is that how you and Itachi got together?" Naruto wiggled his eyebrows at her. Sakura gasped as her cheeks heated up.</p><p>"Naruto!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>"Why is Sakura here?" Shisui questioned slapping Itachi's arm. Itachi rolled his eyes.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sakura isn't here, I think I would notice if she was." Shisui scoffed and pointed over towards the glaringly obvious pink hair in the middle of the office room.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Apparently you're blind then" He responded as Itachi looked over.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"What the hell is she doing here?" Itachi asked as if Shisui never said anything.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"That's.... she's going into your father's office, what the-" The two watched as Sakura, with her now-classic sneer, walked into Fugaku's office and stood in front of his desk.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"She's refusing a seat too... o, that can't be good" Shisui muttered rubbing his forehead.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>...</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"Why did you call me?" Sakura asked watching the head of the Uchiha clan finish his current paperwork.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I need to speak to you" Sakura raised an eyebrow but quickly realised he wasn't going to elaborate.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"About?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"My sons"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Oh what abou- your sons? I thought we had already gone over this" Sakura asked as he placed his paperwork away and turned his full attention to her.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Not quite. They have started to fight" He informed her. </em>
</p><p><em>Her eyebrow raised higher, </em> <em>"And this concerns me how?"</em></p><p>
  <em>"They are fighting about you" Sakura's face fell. Her fears were becoming real. This isn't what she wanted.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"How? What have they been saying?" She asked finally taking her seat. Fugaku sighed rubbing his forehead.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>"Are we going to talk?" Itachi asked as he stepped into their clearing. Sakura was leaning against her usual tree, one foot pressed against the trunk, her arms crossed over her chest and her head dipped down. Hearing Itachi speak, her head lifted but she didn't make eye contact.</p><p>"We need to talk?" She asked.</p><p>"It's been a while since we've actually spoken, privately" He reminded her, not that she needed it. "Sakura, I-"</p><p>"I've been removed" Sakura cut him off. His eyes widen, removed? What had his idiotic father done now?</p><p>"What? I swear... if this was my father, I'll make sure it's undon..." Itachi trailed off seeing her face darken.</p><p>"I asked Lady Tsunade to remove me from Team Uchiha and as much active duty as possible as of today" She spoke still refusing to make eye contact with him. He balled his fist up as his body started to tremble in anger.</p><p>"You asked for this!? Why!?" He yelled. Sakura flinched at his sudden outburst and pushed herself off the tree starting to walk off.</p><p>"You will have a replacement medic by the end of the week" Sakura informed him, not slowing down to face him. Itachi spun to his side as she went to walk past him, he grabbed her elbow making her stop.</p><p>"Team Uchiha doesn't want or need a replacement" He growled tightening his grip on her arm. Sakura closed her eyes with a quiet sigh, there was a reason she did it here. She had to cut off her ties to the Uchiha clan. And this was the strongest. This was where her relations to Itachi started.</p><p>"The paperwork has already been filed. This is my choice, let it be" She spoke coldly before trying to rip her arm away. Itachi refused to let her go and held on tighter.</p><p>"I don't care if this is your choice! You can't do this to us... We're a team, all three of us," His voice cracked. Sakura's bottom lip started to tremble. "You can't do this to me, Sakura."</p><p>"...You said nothing would change! Everything has changed...for the worse," Sakura hissed yanking her arm free. Itachi watched as quiet cries echoed from her shaking figure. "I am no longer part of Team Uchiha... I am no longer a concern of yours. You and Sasuke can be brothers again." Itachi reached out to question her but she vanished in a whirlwind of cherry blossoms. He balled his fists up as a low growl escaped.</p><p>"Sasuke..."</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>"So I was correct?" Sakura asked scanning over the report that sat in her hands. Inoichi sighed, of course that's what she'd take away from the report.</p><p>"You were half correct, Haruno" Ibiki commented with an eye roll. Sakura glared from over the report.</p><p>"Shut up, Scars."</p><p>"Looked in the mirror lately?"</p><p>"Yeah this morning, I look fucking gorgeous," Sakura flipped her hair off her shoulder with a smirk. "You on the other hand, do you even own mirrors? I mean it must be hard when you look at one and it smashes."</p><p>"Enough! You two aren't children!" Inoichi screamed shutting the two up. Sakura put the report on the table and crossed her arms huffing quietly.</p><p>"I assume you've also given this report to Tsunade?" Sakura asked looking up at Inoichi. He nodded before watching her toss her legs off the desk and stood up. "I shall wait for her orders then. Thank you, Inoichi" She spoke turning to leave but stalled as the door was flung open.</p><p>"SAKURA HARUNO!" Ino's voice screeched as the fuming girl entered the office. Sakura squealed and sprinted over towards one of the windows, scrambling to open it and jump out. Sakura's shirt was grabbed and she was thrown back into a seat with a groan. Ino smiled at her father, "Hi, Daddy" She greeted him before her face melded back into anger turning to face Sakura. Ino gripped the arms of the chair getting into Sakura's face.</p><p>"WHAT IS THIS I HEAR ABOUT YOU LEAVING TEAM UCHIHA!?" Sakura covered her ears hoping she didn't have any permeant damage. <em>Stupid Tsunade. Of course she'd send Ino to try and convince me to retract it.</em></p><p>The two men in the room glanced at each other with raised eyebrows, they never expected Sakura would voluntarily give up her spot in Team Uchiha. "Oh that little piece of information, that's nothing" Sakura waved her hand in front of her face with a giggle. Ino snarled at her.</p><p>"How dare you, Sakura!? Why would you do such a thing!?" Ino yelled. Sakura's hand dropped into her lap; the nervous demeanour vanished as she sat up in the chair facing Ino.</p><p>"You say that like it doesn't hurt," Sakura spoke quietly. Ino's face softened as her grip on the chair loosened. "I did it because I had no other choice." Sakura pushed Ino away gently and stood up.</p><p>"No other choice!? What the hell does that mean?" Ino asked becoming worried as her best friend turned silent. Sakura's eyes glanced from the floor to Ino then back to the floor.</p><p>"They're arguing...the last fight they had, they got physical and Lord Fugaku had to step in and stop them," The whole room froze in shock at the words Sakura spoke. "Apparently, Sasuke has taken personal offence to Itachi and I being... close... and he doesn't have a problem voicing that offence" Sakura finished off with a sigh.</p><p>"But... Sasuke's never shown any care before" Ino commented.</p><p>"I think there's something else going on but... I think I broke the camel's back, Ino..." The tears pricked at Sakura's eyes. "And whether I am the main cause or not, I will not be the reason a family is broken apart."</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Ino watched in awe as the three members of Team Uchiha fought effortlessly together. They were nearly the perfect team. Nearly. Itachi had gotten hit while Shisui was across the field. Ino had to see how they would work as a team when separated. Sakura, who was fighting several enemies in the middle, glanced to her left then her right a growl echoing from her. She flipped away from her enemies before balling her fist up. Ino's jaw dropped as a loud 'SHANNAROOOO' echoed around the battlefield before the ground started to crumble around Sakura's enemies. She didn't waste any time jumping along with the rubble towards Itachi, a clone making its way over to Shisui. <strong>She didn't even make any hand signs!</strong> Ino thought holding onto the tree she was resting in.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sakura flew through the enemies surrounding Itachi before checking his wound. Ino made a note in her head, checking wounds in the middle of battle. Ino didn't get a chance to understand what was happening when a cry of pain echoed throughout the battlefield before the Sakura tending to Itachi disappeared in a puff of smoke. Itachi's eyes widen looking over towards Shisui, both he and Ino thought she was the real Sakura, not the clone. Shisui had been shoved down to the ground, his elbows propping him up as he stared in shock. Blood dripped down onto his face from the blade that stuck through Sakura's abdomen. The man who put the sword through her shook in fear. Sakura's darkened face looked up from the blade before her right hand balled into a fist.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You fucked up" She murmured before slamming her fist into his face, infused with as much chakra as she could muster at that moment.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Wh...why?" Shisui whispered. Sakura turned around, her attention returning to Shisui. She grinned down at him.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Because we're teammates. I'd die for you and Itachi any day" Blood dripped out of her mouth before she looked down at the blade, gripping it and ripping it out of her body. Shisui watched in horror as she fell to her knees. She had a sword through her stomach and yet, she was smiling at him? Like she was happy? Proud? Because he wasn't hurt?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>"You've lost your cheerfulness. A pity if you ask me" Shisui muttered watching as the fish nibbled on his feet. Sakura rolled her eyes before grabbing the net and going over to the pound.</p><p>"I already told Itachi that I am not changing my mind" She said again before catching the fish with a seal on it's back.</p><p>"Yeah I know, Ino told me" Sakura's forehead twitched in annoyance.</p><p>"She can't just mind her own business, can she?" Sakura huffed taking the fish over to the table. Shisui chuckled with a shake of his head.</p><p>"We're not recreating the seal incident are we?" Shisui asked with a grin. Sakura rolled her eyes.</p><p>"Shut it."</p><p>He watched as she performed several hand signs before biting her thumb and pressing her blood to the seal. The fish's eyes turned crystal white making Shisui furrow his eyebrows.</p><p>"Uh, Sakura? What are you doing?" He inquired pulling his foot out of the water. Sakura cracked her knuckles before placing her hands over the fish's eyes.</p><p>"The seal on the scroll keeps it alive so I can work on it" She explained</p><p>"Not what I asked..." He trailed off walking over and kneeling to examine her green chakra.</p><p>"Well since I am not longer on active duty, I am focusing on my life's study. I am working on a thesis about eye healing, it's one of the most unknown areas in the medical world" She finally asked. Shisui hummed standing up straight.</p><p>"What's the real reason?" He asked tilting his head to the side. Sakura's eyes hovered up to meet his but as soon as they did, her chakra stopped and she turned around sprinting out of the room. Shisui stared in shock as the spot Sakura was standing in seconds ago as the sound of her bringing her lunch back up echoing throughout the room. "What the fuc..." Shisui sprinted off towards the room Sakura was in. He found her leaning over a toilet, he knelt next to her and pulled her hair out of her face and held it back. One of her hands clutched her chest as pain echoed across her face.</p><p>"Let it all out, Sakura...it's ok" He spoke quietly rubbing her back gently.</p><p>Tsunade eyed the room, Sakura's experimental fish was lying on the table but her student was nowhere to be seen. She was about to call out for her when, "PREGNANT!?" Shisui's voice rang out from the bathroom. Tsunade nearly fainted at the word but kept herself together as Shisui dashed out of the bathroom with Sakura hot on his heels. Sakura caught up to him, grabbed his collar and slammed him into one of the support columns, seething at him.</p><p>"I swear, Shisui! You are an idiot!" She growled. Before Sakura could cause any damage, Tsunade cleared her throat. Sakura spun around dropping Shisui with wide eyes.</p><p>"My Lady!" She squealed, cheeks bright red.</p><p>"Uh... care to explain?" The Hokage asked Sakura noticed straight away that Tsunade was holding her anger back.</p><p>"It's not what you think! I'm not....ugh, SHISUI!" Sakura screamed in frustration. "I'm not pregnant! I was just sick!" Sakura yelled gripping the ends of her hair.</p><p>"There was no explanation to you being sick, Sakura! You were perfectly fine then you lo...oked... oh" Shisui looked down rubbing his neck awkwardly. Sakura sighed before resealing her fish; its eyes turned back to their normal colour before she plopped it back into the water.</p><p>"I already told you all, I am not returning to Team Uchiha. Why won't any of you just accept that this is what is best..." Sakura's voice was quiet, hurt lacing every word.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Itachi narrowed his eyes at the pinkette who was standing at the front of the Uchiha compound. Many of the Uchiha clan had come to the entrance when they felt her chakra approaching; she didn't even try to hide it. She wanted them to know she was coming. Itachi himself was sitting on the compound entrance walls with Shisui and a few others.</p><p>"What is she doing?" Shisui muttered with a sigh. He knew why she never came around to the compound so it made no sense for her to rock up out of the blue now. Now that the rumour of her causing problems in the main household was all over the compound. One of the male Uchiha stepped forward with a small sneer.</p><p>"What do you want?" He asked as her eyes finished scanning every Uchiha expect Itachi and Shisui. Her eyes landed on the one who stood in front of her and sneered back, clearly outmatching him.</p><p>"Hn, who does she think she is?" Shisui and Itachi listened to the others' whispers about her. Everyone knew who she was, the pink civilian girl who was suddenly appointed a position on an Uchiha only team.</p><p>"I'm looking for Sasuke, is he here?" Sakura asked ignoring the whispers. The Uchiha glared at her.</p><p>"Why do you want Sasuke?"</p><p>"That's none of your business. Is he here?" Sakura wasn't giving any ground to the Uchiha.</p><p>"You're not welcome here" Sakura arched an eyebrow at him.</p><p>"Oh is that why you've all gathered around like a pack of rats?" She smirked as many of the gathered around Uchihas' threw insults and threats at her. The one in front of her fumed.</p><p>"If you're looking for a fight, you'v-"</p><p>"No, I already told you. I'm looking for Sasuke," She cut him off crossing her arms. "Or is that too much for your monkey brain to comprehend?" A fist flew at Sakura's face. With no effort, Sakura moved to the side dodging the man's fist before grabbing it and flipping him onto his back. Within a second, Sakura had her knee pressed into his chest and a kunai at his throat. Gasps could be heard throughout the crowd, Itachi and Shisui shaking their heads. "So, are you going to tell me where he is or what?" The Uchiha dug his throat into the kunai in response. Sakura rolled her eyes and gladly kept the same amount of pressure, allowing the Uchiha to pierce his skin.</p><p>"Sasuke is out training, Sakura" Everyone except Sakura froze as the voice spoke. Removing the kunai, Sakura stood up and faced Fugaku.</p><p>"Thank you for informing me, Lord Fugaku" She responded placing the kunai away and walking over towards him.</p><p>"May I inquire on why you want to speak to him?" Fugaku asked raising an eyebrow at the cocky pinkette.</p><p>"They've gotten close... he's nice to her" Shisui muttered to Itachi who nodded in agreement. Sakura reached into her pouch and pulled out a scroll handing it to the head of the Uchiha clan. The crowd watched with anticipation, this random girl was able to stand beside the head of one of the most prestigious clans in Konoha with an aroura that demanded the same amount of respect he deserved. Fugaku took the scroll with a raised eyebrow before opening it and reading. His hands tensed before he glanced up at her.</p><p>"I still do not understand why you wish to speak to Sasu-"</p><p>"Because I have some unfinished business with him. If you don't mind, I'm going to go find him" Sakura bowed in respect, Fugaku copying her before she vanished. Fugaku rolled his eyes as half of the crowd nearly fainted.</p><p>"Father?" Itachi asked walking up to him, eyeing the scroll.</p><p>"Sakura Haruno has officially been removed from your three-man squad. She will be leaving on a solo mission soon, a classified mission" Fugaku informed his eldest.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Sasuke went to pick up one of the folded letters on the table but was stopped by Itachi's hand which slammed into them. "They are private" Was all he said, not removing his hand until Sasuke stepped back a bit.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Private? What are they?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Private letters. Meaning for my eyes only."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Letters from who?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Do you understand what private means?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"They're from Sakura, aren't they?" The anger in Sasuke's tone was overwhelming. The boys' mother stood in the doorway to the kitchen with a frown across her face, she hated seeing them fight.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Why do you assume that, Sasuke?" Itachi asked not looking up from his report.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Because who else would be writing to you? Plus, that's clearly her handwriting" Sasuke pointed to the top letter. Itachi sighed placing his pen down.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Why will you not mind your own business?" He asked standing up. Sasuke narrowed his eyes.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"My own business? I don't know what that weak little bi-" Sasuke was cut off by Itachi's hand wrapping around his throat and slamming his body against the wall. Sasuke's eyes widen in shock then narrowed his rage; hands trying to beat Itachi away. Mikoto gasped in shock at Itachi's actions, dropping the dishes she held in her hand. Her husband sprinted into the room hearing the dishes smashing. His eyes widen at the sight of his eldest son choking his youngest.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Itachi!" Fugaku grabbed Itachi's shirt yanking him away from Sasuke. His heart snuck into his stomach. Itachi's face was covered in rage and he had not only activated his sharingan but had gone so far as to activate his mangekyo sharingan. "What is going on!?" Fugaku shoved Itachi backwards before turning to face Sasuke. Itachi hadn't done anything but tried to choke him, thank Kami.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>When he got no answer from the boys, he looked at his wife who was trembling in tears. This wasn't how she raised her boys. "What are you two thinking!?" She screamed. Itachi's head dropped slightly as Sasuke looked back at his mother.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Fighting over this girl! What has gotten into you two!? She is just some girl, you two are brothers!" Sasuke sighed rubbing his neck gently.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Mother is right, Itac-"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sakura isn't just some girl, Mother," Itachi lifted his head up again, his eyes still shining blood red. "I love her and I'll be damned if I left Sasuke insult her like she is worthless. She is worth more to me than anything else in this world."</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sakura and Tenten sat on a grassy hill, watching the sky. "I want to talk to you about...well, all this sadness" Tenten gestured to Sakura's whole body.</p>
<p>"You also want to know why I've lost my chirpiness as Shisui calls it?" Sakura asked arching her eyebrow.</p>
<p>"Well yeah...you know you don't need a guy to be happy..." Tenten watched as Sakura looked down, her hair falling down her shoulders. Unknown to the two girls, a third person was listening to their conversation. She didn't mean to eavesdrop but when she noticed Sakura's pink hair, she had to listen to what they were talking about. Mikoto stood with her back pressed against a tree, her shopping bag clutched to her chest as she suppressed her chakra.</p>
<p>"Itachi makes me happy, Tenten... Whether we're just friends, teammates... Being around him makes me so happy" Sakura mumbled sighing. Tenten's face fell as she watched Sakura fiddle with her clothes.</p>
<p>"Why don't you ask Tsunade to put you back on Team Uchiha? You were so happy..."</p>
<p>"Because I'm causing problems for Itachi and Sasuke... I don't want them fighting, not over me" Sakura replied. Mikoto's heart started to melt as shame took over. She had the wrong idea about Sakura, she had asked herself how could someone do this to her boys and not feel any pain about it? But Sakura did, this girl was being torn apart between doing what was right for the Uchiha brothers and what made her happy.</p>
<p>"I still don't understand Sasuke's problem" Tenten commented. Sakura sighed rubbing her forehead.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>"I'm losing my brother because of you!! Team 7 has been torn apart because of you!!" Sakura never thought she would see Sasuke Uchiha cry but here she was; standing in the middle of a destroyed training ground with a balling Sasuke.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>  </em>
</p>
<p>"He thinks I've stolen Itachi from him and he thinks I'm the reason Team 7 is no longer together" Sakura muttered. Tenten's mouth flew to the ground.</p>
<p>"HE WHAT!?" She burst out in anger. Sakura sighed with a shrug. "Have you actually explained your...relation...ship... with Itachi to Sasuke?" Tenten asked. Sakura pulled her knees to her chest, resting her chin on top of them.</p>
<p>"I tried but he won't listen...and...it doesn't matter. I'm leaving it alone... I should have known better" Sakura muttered.</p>
<p>"Known better!? Itachi was the one who didn't tell you who he was! And you said he knew who you were!" Tenten was fuming at the thought of Sasuke ruining Sakura's life over this. Mikoto furrowed her eyebrows, she had to talk to Itachi about this.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Itachi watched with hawk eyes as his mother picked up the photo frame of Team Uchiha... the old Team Uchiha. Mikoto brushed a hand over Sakura's grinning face. She stood in between the two boys, holding their hands. Both boys were also grinning, the three were practically on top of each other in it. "She's a beautiful girl" Mikoto murmured glancing at Itachi.</p>
<p>"Hn" She sighed placing the photo back down before picking up the next one. It was just him and Sakura, the two were sitting on a boulder together. They looked pretty beaten up but were both beaming as they interlocked their arms.</p>
<p>"You said you love her...is that true?"</p>
<p>"Why are you suddenly so interested, Mother?" Itachi asked raising an eyebrow.</p>
<p>"I overheard a conversation earlier between her and her friend" She muttered. Itachi shut his eyes tightly, great, now his Mother was eavesdropping on Sakura. "I think you need to talk to Sasuke. Explain to him how this friendship with Sakura started" Mikoto informed him walking towards his door. "And bring her around, I want to meet her officially."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sakura's eyes hovered over the lifeless eyes. She wondered what was on the other side, an afterlife? Or was it just nothing? A dark oblivion. Her eyes slowly shifted upwards. Maybe this was her afterlife? Her hell? Maybe she never made it out of the hideout. She quickly shook the idea away and started to restart the fish's heart after she accidentally killed it. In her defence, it was the only second time she hadn't checked the seal. And this time wasn't as bad as- her thoughts were cut off by a cackling.</p>
<p>"Did you do it again, Sakura!?" Ino laughed. Sakura looked over her shoulder and saw Tenten and Ino entering her study room. Sakura looked away with a huff; Ino's laughs got louder.</p>
<p>"Again? What happened?" Tenten asked with furrowed eyebrows.</p>
<p>"Oh, it was awesome! Sakura didn't check the seal on her scroll and lit-" Ino cut herself off as Sakura shot daggers at her.</p>
<p>"We do not discuss the seal incident..." Sakura's voice was deep and threatening. Tenten's eyes widen as Ino hid behind her chuckling awkwardly.</p>
<p>"Right, right...sorry" She muttered. "What are you doing anyway? I thought you set out on your mission today?" Ino questioned.</p>
<p>"Naruto and Kakashi won't be ready till tomorrow so I decided to keep working" Sakura explained with a shrug.</p>
<p>"You work yourself too much, Sakura. Oh! Why don't we go to the baths!?" Ino suggested with a grin.</p>
<p>"Baths sound amazing!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p>...</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The girls had gotten used to Sakura's scars so when she flicked off her robe and moved towards the water nobody batted an eye. Until Sakura lied her head back with a groan.</p>
<p>"Sa-Sakura?" Hinata asked making all eyes shot towards Sakura.</p>
<p>"Yeah, Hinata?" She replied in a quiet voice.</p>
<p>"A-Are...are yo-you ok-ok?" Hinata asked as Sakura's neck cracked.</p>
<p>"Yeah I'm perfectly fine" Sakura shrugged sinking lower into the water. Ino frowned as Sakura shut her eyes, her right hand tracing back and forth over her largest scar.</p>
<p>"You never told us that story" Tenten asked making the other girls perk up. Normally they wouldn't ask about her scars but they were also so curious about them. Sakura chuckled hollowly.</p>
<p>"For a reason" She muttered before peaking a look at all the doe-eyed girls. With a groan, Sakura sat up running a hand through her hair. "Alright ladies, you win"</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Sakura tried her hardest to pull her arm away, if she could just pulse enough chakra into the rop- the door slammed open and her head shot up with owl eyes. The doctor (Seiji) stood with a monstrous grin on his face as he cackled at her attempts to free herself.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"The boss-man says I don't have to worry about keeping all three of you alive," The hairs on her arms stood up. "He wants an eye for an eye. Doctor P was an important person in this organisation" He continued stepping over to where Sakura was bound. The metal operating table she lost her fingers on had been replaced by a chair that lied flat. Its shape cut out in the shape on a human.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"You think you scare me? Think again, bastard" Sakura hissed trying to sit up but the ropes around her arms made it impossible for her to gain any leverage. The doctor only chuckled placing a bag on the bench beside her. She watched as he pulled out several different utensils; lying them all next to each other, his grin getting wider with each tool.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"You seem to have underestimated us, little girl. I suggest you place your head back down; you don't want to choke."</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>"Cho-" Her forehead was slammed against the head of the chair, thick leather straps were tightened around her forehead and chin. She tried to thrash her head around but the straps made it almost impossible.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"What happened next!?"</p>
<p>"SHUT UP TENTEN!" Sakura chuckled at the girls as Tenten sunk into the water with a quiet 'sorry'.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Itachi and Shisui watched from their positions as another man entered the room carrying hospital equipment. Shisui noted the bag the next man who entered was carrying; they were going to inject her with something. The first man placed the stand down before grabbing a poorly cut piece of wood, leather straps had also been nailed into the ends. Sakura clamped her mouth shut as he stood beside her. "It'll easier if you just open your mouth" He spoke quietly.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Kinky" Another roar of anger from the peanut gallery. It was Ino's turn to sink into the water as Sakura rolled her eyes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>He nearly broke her jaw and yet she still refused to open her mouth. With a sigh, he turned back to the bench grabbing a thick white cloth. Before Sakura could analyse the situation, the top half of her face was being smothered. So he thought smothering her would make her breath through her mouth? Ha, she'd just hold her breath until she passed out.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Expect that wouldn't work? Because when you pass out, they won't have a problem opening your mouth."</p>
<p>"TENTEN!!" Several fists were slammed on Tenten's head as Sakura sighed. Her head twisted towards the door feeling a chakra flare, it was soft but evident to her.</p>
<p>"Wh-What happ-happened nex-next?"</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>"Normally I would like to hear the screams of my victims but I think watching you chew on that like a dog will please me much more. Plus, I can imagine you'll be swallowing a lot of splinters." That word hit Sakura hard and bounced around her mind. Victim. He thought of her as a victim. But a victim of what exactly? This was her job; torture and death was an occupational hazard. Why did it disturb her so much? Victim... Sakura mentally shook the thought from her head as the doctor walked over to her left side. She couldn't see her two team members but she was sure they had them where they could watch in full horror. Sucking in a deep breath and shutting her eyes, Sakura braced herself for the torture. But nothing came.</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Ohh! What do you think is going to happen!?" Tenten whispered splashing some of the water around. Sometimes they forget that this isn't from some storybook. This was Sakura's life, her history. She went through this. Hinata frowned watching Sakura looked back at the door, an echo of a smile on her face.</p>
<p>"Do you know how hard it is on the eyes when they're forced open?" Sakura whispered, the whispers and screams silenced at her voice. The chakra flare started again. As she shut her eyes, she flared her own chakra, enough for the other person to notice but nobody else.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Blinking was useless. She had no control over her body anymore. He wasn't joking when he told Sakura that it didn't matter if she died. He was here to bring her as much pain he could possibly inflict on her. This included mental and physical. Included restricting all her movement, purposely using a choppy piece of wood as a gag and now using a metal piler like device to force her eyes open. The head part of the chair was lifted so she had a full view of her body. He was going to force her to watch her own torture. She snarled into the gag, challenging him. She wouldn't break. She wouldn't be his victim; she was getting out of here and taking her boys with her.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Sakura expected a sharp blade to slice through her skin like cheese but instead a blunt blade was slid across her arm. From her elbow to her shoulder. First it tickled. By the 50th go over, Sakura's arm was burning in pain. Her faith in herself started to waver. How could she survive this when she didn't know the two Uchihas' would be ok?</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Wait how could a blunt blade-"</p>
<p>"She isn't finished, dumbass!!"</p>
<p>"Co-Come on I-Ino! Tenten was just cur-curious!" Another chakra flare. Sakura dipped her body further into the water, the burning sensation returning to her scar. Her own chakra bubbling in response to the chakra flare. Just as Sakura settled to continue her storytelling, screams and giggles erupted from the change room.</p>
<p>"Ah guess that's our time over" Sakura murmured standing up.</p>
<p>"Awe, come on!! I wanna know how it ends!" Tenten whined as they followed Sakura.</p>
<p>In the changing room were a group of girls, their chatter only silenced when Sakura entered the room walking over towards her clothes and flicking her towel into the towel bin. She was used to her scars being stared at.</p>
<p>"Bath is still warm" She informed them before she started to dress, the other girls entered shortly after her watching the new group with hawk eyes.</p>
<p>"What's all the screaming about?" Tenten asked raising an eyebrow at the new group. The girls were flustered and stuttered to find an answer, one of them glancing at Sakura; something that didn't go unnoticed by anyone but Sakura.</p>
<p>"The Uchiha boys were outside" One finally answered.</p>
<p>"Shisui, Itachi and Sasuke" One flicked the hair off her shoulder answering the unasked question. Ino looked over at Sakura who was finishing doing her top up, she clearly was unphased by this. Sakura glanced up as another girl entered the changing room; her eyes connected with deep onyx, the person responsible for the chakra flare conversation. The eye contact was broken when the shher covering the door fell back into place.</p>
<p>"I'll see you guys once I've returned from my mission. Bye" Sakura waved at them before walking out before they could argue with her. The three girls glanced at each other coming to the same decision. They ran over to the entrance and peeked out from behind the sheet.. They watched as Sakura walked past Shisui and Itachi silently, she didn't even give them a glance. Itachi's jaw tightened as he turned his head to watch Sakura walk off.</p>
<p>"Damn, that was cold" Shisui muttered clapping Itachi on the back.</p>
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<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sakura dangled her leg over the edge of the branch while she rested her back against the tree trunk. She turned her head when someone softly landed on the branch next to her. "You're meant to be resting, my time isn't up for another two hours" Sakura said with a slight frown as he sat down with a shrug.</p><p>"No better time to talk than now, right?" He asked tilting his head to look at her. "It's a nice mask" He muttered gesturing to the ANBU mask in her hands. Sakura cast her eyes down to her lap. Her mask was a simple white mask with a pink cherry blossom in the middle of the forehead, from that cherry blossom were four thick black lines, two running down the cheeks and the other two running up to the mask's ears. Another two lines emerged from the eyes like horns.</p><p>"I asked for the cherry blossom... but it was Lady Tsunade's idea" Sakura explained, the edges of her lips twitching up.</p><p>"She taught you well."</p><p>"She taught me everything." Sakura saw Kakashi flinch but she didn't care. He was never a sensei to her; she wasn't going to pity him. "I need to know this, Kakashi. Before we get anywhere near the enemies," Sakura caught his attention with a hard stare. "Do you trust me to know what is best for the success of this mission? Will you do as I say even if you disagree?" Sakura asked. Kakashi stared at her for a while, thinking about it.Sakura sighed and looked back down at her mask. He didn't trust her. </p><p>"...These people... could be responsible for..." His eyes glanced at her hand. She had her gloves modified (that word sent shivers down his spine) to fit her deformed hands.</p><p>"I am aware. You don't have to worry about me attacking unless necessary. It is Naruto who is my worry," Sakura replied. "Has he changed much?" She asked as both their eyes cast down to Naruto who was passed out in his spot.</p><p>"No." A snort came from Sakura at Kakashi's quick response.</p><p>"I got the reports from Inoichi on what he gathered in from Seiji's memories," Sakura informed him pulling out two scrolls from her kunai pouch and handing to him. Kakashi nodded taking them but didn't look at them. Sakura furrowed her eyebrows. "Are you gonna...you know, look?" She asked leaning forward.He shook his head before nodding towards her mask again.</p><p>"Are you..." She could sense the fear radiating off him.</p><p>"No. I didn't join ROOT. I work in the ANBU units under the Hokage only" Sakura explained. "With my knowledge of classified information, I'm too dangerous to put anywhere near ROOT" She added with a shrug before looking off into the distance. Kakashi watched her carefully. She had changed so much in the past four years, had he really overlooked her potential? He mentally scoffed at himself. He didn't overlook her potential. He overlooked her as a person.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Kakashi and Naruto watched with wide eyes as Sakura fixed her mask onto her face before jumping down into the crowd. She weaved through the townspeople, not slowing down until she got to a male with slicked back lavender hair. Kakashi noticed the man tense as Sakura kept in stride with the man; something shiny flickered in the sun at his back. Kakashi narrowed his eyes, "Kunai" Naruto spoke quietly. Kakashi glanced at his student and found him in an all too serious stance then he thought was impossible for Naruto. Naruto's focus was solely on Sakura who wore a henge, her normal bubble-gum pink hair was now a rich chocolate colour and her normal ANBU uniform switched in a beautiful traditional kimono; he couldn't risk losing her in the crowd. <em>Since when did Naruto become so serious about his missions?</em> Kakashi thought with a frown.</p><p>"They're on the move, our right" Naruto spoke before following Sakura's lead and jumping into the crowd. The two quickly followed Sakura and found her in the end of an alley. There were four men lying unconscious on the ground while she had the lavender haired male pinned against the wall, her kunai at his neck and her henge gone. Kakashi's eyes widen seeing the state of them all; Sakura didn't have a scratch while the four men on the ground had bloody noses.</p><p>"About time you two got here. Inside" Sakura ordered removing the kunai from the man's name</p><p>"Come on, Sak-"</p><p>"Now, Raiden" Her voice deadly quiet. The man, Raiden, put his hands up before scampering off to the door on their left. The three teammates followed shortly after. Glancing at Sakura as they descended a dark stairwell, Kakashi noticed she didn't seem the bit affected or nervous. Naruto, on the other hand, looked nervous but every couple of minutes he would glance at Sakura and feel his fear wash away. If Sakura wasn't afraid, then why should he be?</p><p>Naruto quickly found out that while he trusted Sakura, that wasn't in his best interest when it came to dark spooky basements. The place they entered was almost an underground night club. If it had been left to rot a hundred years ago. Crawling with different kinds of bugs from cockroaches to snakes and spiders, Naruto squealed quietly stepping closer to Sakura. Sakura untied her mask from her side and instead used it for its purpose and covered her face. "You're in luck today, Blossom. We have some special visitors and I," Raiden turned around with a grin and wagged his finger at her. "Just have the right amount of access to get you in the meeting" He finished. Sakura rolled her eyes as she pulled her hair up into a long ponytail. If it was out, it would only get in her way. "But you didn't have to go all Uchiha on those four" He complained.</p><p>"Hn, whatever" Kakashi frowned at the unfortunate habits she had picked up from her now old teammates.</p><p>"See you even sound like them! I remember when the weasel first brought you in," Sakura balled her fist up at the nickname makingRaiden laugh nervously. "You were so bright in your demeanour-" His words blurred to the team as he started to ramble. Sakura looked to her right and nudge Naruto's arm gently.</p><p>"Put it on" She ordered before looking at Kakashi and nodding.</p><p>Naruto juggled with the mask Sakura had supplied him. The mask was a fox mask, it resembled the dog mask Sakura had gifted Kakashi but its nose was more pointed and it had an evil grin carved into it while Kakashi's mask held a simple curved line. "I thought it suited you, with the mischievous smile and all" Sakura pointed out, a smile hidden by her mask. Is this what she sees as mischievous? This horrifying twisted grin that reminded him of the fox demon. How much had she truly changed if she found this mischievous? Naruto glanced at Kakashi who was already wearing his own mask. With a sigh, Naruto placed his own on. He never imagined what it would be like to be a part of ANBU, is this what Sakura wanted? She was right, she deserved to be respected as a strong kunoichi of Konoha if she could go through with these missions. His eyes travelled along her back to her hands. <em>I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, Sakura... I failed you. We all failed you.</em></p><p>"Once we pass through here, you need to stay silent unless you want to get caught" Raiden informed them. Naruto grimaced looking around the skulls and threats painted on the walls that lead down another dark hallway. Sakura nodded and looked at Naruto and Kakashi.</p><p>"I suggest you just stay quiet and let me do the talking" She suggested before following Raiden.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Sakura slid to a stop with a quiet growl. They had her cornered.She had sent Naruto and Kakashi to deal with the mission's real targets while she followed Raiden. His information was always trustworthy and she wasn't disappointed when he took her to another room which overlooked what was known as the underground's cafeteria and pointed out the rat. If he was here, it was likely he was connected to their targets. She thought she had the upper hand but now she was stuck at the end of a street with no exit.</p><p>"I thought a kunoichi of your abilities would have been known better than find confront me by yourself. Its a shame really" A soft monotone voice taunted. Sakura growled quietly as she pulled out a kunai.</p><p>"Bring it, rat" She hissed before pouncing.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>Naruto and Kakashi followed the path of destruction, "It looks like Sakura found the targets" Naruto commented landing next to a broken branch of a thick oak tree. Kakashi landed beside him with a nod.</p><p>"Hopefully the battle has not been going on for too long. Sakura may be strong but it seems her skills are amplified when in a team setting" Kakashi commented as they took off again. Naruto nodded with a tight jaw; she'd be fine. She had to be fine.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>"What?" Sakura asked tilting her head to look at Naruto.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I heard that you..." He sighed resting his arms on the railing. "You left your team. Why?"Sakura turned around to face the village with a tight jaw.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Because Sasuke-"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Who cares what Sasuke thinks!" Sakura stumbled backwards shocked at Naruto's response. "You're happy in that team, Sakura. You're happy with them... in a way you weren't in Team 7" Naruto's demeanour became solemn. Sakura reached over placing a hand on Naruto's arm.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Naruto..."</em>
</p><p> </p><p>The battlefield in front of them looked like a bomb had gone off in the middle of it with a giant crater which obliterated whatever had been there. Weapons and blood covered the surrounding area of the crater. Naruto's heart sunk into his stomach as the air surrounding him suddenly became thick. It wasn't meant to end like this. Too young, far too soon. They were all meant to grow old together, laugh at the memories of when they were children.</p><p>"Naruto!" Kakashi screamed reaching to grab his sleeve but he was too slow. Naruto stumbled down the side of the crater, tears following down his face. Kakashi felt a sting at his heart as he watched his student slide onto his knees clutching the body to his chest. Her pink hair stuck out like a sore thumb from the pale dirt. Naruto cried as he scanned over the broken body. No, broken wasn't a strong enough word. Her body, her corpse, was mangled. Her body was almost ripped apart into pieces. In fact, chunks were missing from her stomach and legs. She wasn't meant to die here. Not so young. But Naruto couldn't deny it, couldn't change the fact there was no heartbeat. Not a single breath was drawn from her pale boy.</p><p>He was too late to save Sakura.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>His hand tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear. The cold of her skin sent shivers down his spine. "Who did it?" He asked looking to his right.</p><p>"We're not sure... her mission was to find information on the Akatsuki members known as Hidan and Kakuzu but Kakashi informed me that they chased the targets while Sakura investigated something else" Tsunade explained with a trembling hand. "We believe it may have been another Akatsuki member."</p><p>"Has anyone told..." He shut his eyes tightly. "Does Itachi know?"</p><p>"No. You're the first, Shisui."</p><p>"I'll be the one to tell him" Shisui replied starting to walk to the door. He froze at the door and turned to take one last look at Sakura's lifeless body. "He can't see her like this."</p><p> </p><p>Tsunade sighed to herself waiting for Shizune to bring in the first group to be informed. She didn't want to them to see her body, not when she looked barely human. This image would be engraved into the minds forever. But she knew there was some who wouldn't accept it if they didn't see her body.</p><p>"Lady Tsunade?" Shizune's soft voice broke the Hokage out of her daydream. She raised her head and nodded with a sigh before leaving the operating room. In the hallway stood Konoha 11 minus Naruto.</p><p>"Lady Tsunade?" Ino asked stepping forward. Tsunade took a deep breath before lifting her head to look them all in the eye.</p><p>"I have the greatest regret that I must inform you on Sakura's death," Crickets. Nobody said a single word. "I..." Tsunade stepped aside. "Her body is inside but I warn you... you don't want to see her like this." Ino was the first to step forward and push open the operating room doors. Shikamaru and Choji were the next to enter; only entering to pick Ino off the floor in her fits of sobs. Shikamaru froze when his eyes landed on Sakura's face. Sickly pale skin, glassy dulled jade eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling. After watching the others enter, Tsunade turned to see Sasuke still standing in the hallway.</p><p>"You're not going to..." She trailed off with a sigh.</p><p>"What's the point? I barely knew the girl" Sasuke replied kicking himself off the wall and leaving the hospital.</p><p> </p><p>...</p><p> </p><p>The coffin was lowered into the dug-out Earth. Itachi's eyes followed it slowly, tears still stinging his eyes with anger boiling in his blood. Shisui had managed to keep him from barging into the room; kept him seeing whatever a monster had done to her. He cursed at his best friend but deep down he knew why Shisui wouldn't let him see her. He'd never see her any other way. He promised one thing to Sakura as her body was lowered to her final resting place. He would find who did this and he would kill them. Slowly. Itachi was only brought out of his thoughts when Shisui tugged at his arm. Tsunade had asked them to speak a few words to the small group at the funeral.</p><p>When they stood in front of the grave, they found the group was not small in the slightest. The front row consisted of those who knew her the best; Tsunade, Shizune, Naruto, Kakashi, Ino and two empty spots the Uchiha boys were just standing in. The second row was the rest of the Konoha 12 in each of their genin teams. Sasuke was absent. Behind them, the chunin and jonin Sakura knew personally; Genma, Ibiki, Gai, Kurenai, Asuma. Behind those many others stood that Itachi and Shisui didn't even know Sakura had encountered. Some even looked like civilians who Sakura would have helped on missions. Shisui cleared his throat glancing at Itachi who shrugged slightly.</p><p>"Er... As Sakura's last team, we've been asked to speak a few words to say farewell to her," Shisui addressed the group. Itachi's eyes lowered to the grave. A faint memory of Sakura’s grin flashed through his mind. The smile she gave when she was truly happy. "Both Itachi and I were close to Sakura. We may have not known as her long as others but our experiences with her bonded the three of us in a way that couldn't have been broken." Shisui's words hit Itachi hard. "She was always so full of life and it's...it's hard to believe we've lost her... We couldn't have asked for a better teammate...or friend" Shisui became quiet as he started to choke on the air around him.</p><p>"Sakura was a beauty rarely seen in the shinobi world. She rose above the expectations of a civilian born kunoichi. Becoming one of the strongest Konoha had to offer, stronger than anyone ever expected from her. She exceeded in everything she tried, whether that be medical ninjutsu or being a good friend. She filled our lives and hearts with joy and love. Now she'll leave this life behind and rise to the skies to watch over us all..." Itachi trailed off as Ino collapsed into another fit of sobs with Naruto and Shizune trying to calm her down.</p><p>He'd never get to feel the softness of her skin again, never watch her laugh again or see her smile. He'd also never have to see her in pain again. Never again would he fail to protect her or worry about her. For it finally registered that Sakura Haruno was dead as it felt like his heart was torn out of his chest and tossed into the hole with the body of the girl he loved. It belonged there with her. He’d never love again.</p><p>"Sakura deserved better."</p>
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